Rookie wonder Tariq Woolen choked up over how far he’s come so fast for the Seahawks
Tariq Woolen had just reclaimed a share of the NFL’s lead for interceptions.
His Seahawks had just won a division game, at the Super Bowl-champion Los Angeles Rams.
But instead of celebrating, the rookie cornerback nearly wept. He became emotional thinking about how far he’s come so quickly.
On May 5, Woolen was in the third, long day of a three consecutive NFL draft parties at his parents’ home in Fort Worth, Texas. They sat watching and waiting — and waiting — through round one Thursday night. He was a long shot to get drafted there. They waited through rounds two and three Friday, where he expected to get picked.
And they were still waiting Saturday morning through round four. Still no calls, not from any NFL teams, anyway.
“I was getting calls from different people. And I was just embarrassed,” Woolen said outside the visitors’ locker room at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, after his sixth interception helped Seattle beat the Rams and enter the Seahawks’ home game against Carolina 7-5.
His voice wavered as he wiped his face.
“I was just seeing corners go, corners go, corners go. And I was just like, ‘Dang! I’m supposed to be here!’” Woolen said.
But no one could have imagined he’d be here.
Tariq Woolen leads Pro Bowl voting
Six and a half months after the Seahawks called in round five to end Woolen’s embarrassment and wait, a dozen games into his NFL career, Woolen is leading all cornerbacks through two iterations of fan voting for the Pro Bowl. Not leading NFC cornerbacks. He’s leading all NFL cornerbacks.
Woolen nearly had his seventh interception this season on the first defensive drive of Sunday’s game. He raced over from outside right, sped onto Sam Darnold’s incoming pass and reached over Carolina wide receiver DJ Moore to bat away a throw inside the Seattle 10-yard line. Woolen stomped into the turf, upset he didn’t catch the pass.
People rightly are comparing Woolen to another tall, long, former college wide receiver Seattle coach Pete Carroll drafted in the fifth round and turned into a star Seahawks cornerback 11 years ago.
But when comparing rookie seasons, Woolen is outperforming even Richard Sherman.
Carroll chose Sherman out of Stanford with the 154th-overall choice in the fifth round in 2011. But the coach didn’t start him until halfway into his rookie season.
This spring, 152 other rookies got picked in the draft before Carroll took Woolen. Yet Carroll saw the physical skills of the 6-foot-4 Woolen with his 4.26-second speed in the 40-yard dash and made him the Seahawks’ starting right cornerback from the first preseason game in mid-August, at Pittsburgh.
Woolen missed a tackle on an outside run play then got fooled and beaten by the Steelers while blowing a coverage near the goal for a touchdown on his first defensive series as a pro.
He’s barely given up anything since.
He entered Sunday with six interceptions. That is the most in Seahawks history for a rookie. Opposing quarterbacks and play callers have mostly just stopped throwing Woolen’s way, leaving the Seahawks having one-third less of the field to defend on passes.
The Las Vegas Raiders brought one of the game’s elite wide receivers into Seattle last month. They targeted Davante Adams 11 times in the game at Lumen Field.
Not one of Adams’ targets was at Woolen.
Three targets a game at the rookie is a lot these days. He’s getting the Sherman treatment, only years before Sherman did while leading the Seahawks’ league-best defense into consecutive Super Bowls. Defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt says he has to keep reminding Woolen to stay focused, stay sharp, stay ready in games.
In fact, Woolen gets more passes thrown at him in practice than he does in games.
When Woolen joined the Seahawks this spring into summer and immediately showed Carroll he should be starting from game one, Sherman began tutoring him some in practices and off film. Sherman and Hurtt saw Woolen’s hands, his ability to catch any pass thrown his way, as perhaps his only weakness.
“I can testify to that a little bit,” Woolen said, smiling. “But at the same time, as a rookie coming in you are just trying to fit in, get acclimated, and feel more comfortable. For me, when I first got here, I was not necessarily nervous, but being around new people, new teammates, and older guys that have been here and have seen a lot of rookies coming through.
“I was just kind of nervous because I didn’t want to be a rookie that people see as, ‘Oh, he isn’t going to be able to do anything.’”
Extra catches, every practice
Woolen went to Seahawks coaches this preseason and asked for balls to be thrown to him before and after every practice play, run or pass. He got the idea from an assistant coach at Texas-San Antonio, where head coach Frank Wilson converted Woolen from wide receiver in 2019.
“In college, I remember at certain times at practice, after plays, we would have a quarterback or a coach throw us a ball. I just thought that was a cool idea, just being able to catch the ball a lot more often,” Woolen said. “That way, we can at least get used to having a ball in our hand and know what it feels like to catch a ball.
“I know that when I was a receiver, any time I got the ball, my hands were warm, I was feeling good, and it makes you more comfortable catching the ball.”
Third-string quarterback Sean Mannion and back-up QB Drew Lock take turns on the offense’s left side throwing balls at Woolen at right cornerback. Woolen catches it, throws it back. This happens about 75 times each practice.
“He’s got Sean Mannion working him out every day,” Carroll said. “It just makes sense that he is more confident, more comfortable. And Sean moves the ball around on him and stuff like that.
“He has improved his hands since he has been here with us. He wanted to get a rhythm to his day that he can work on it. We fitted it into practice. It’s pretty cool. After the play is over, he’s coming back, ‘boom,’ he’s catching the football. He might catch a couple of them in that time frame. He’s repping it out and he has really shown that he can make a difference.”
The Seahawks liked the idea from the NFL leader in interceptions so much, they now have running backs coach Chad Morton on the other side of the practice field throwing passes to Michael Jackson and Tre Brown working at left cornerback at the end of every play.
Pro Bowl bonus money at stake
Fan voting combines with players’ and coaches’ voting to determine who makes the NFC and AFC Pro Bowl rosters. Thought they don’t play the useless All-Star game anymore, the players still get cash bonuses for getting picked.
“It’s pretty cool, honestly,” Woolen said. “As a human, you are going to think about it, especially as a rookie. I just take it all as a blessing and I am trying to let it sink in. It hasn’t really sunk in yet because I have been focusing on finishing the regular season and eventually going to the playoffs.”
If he gets voted to the Pro Bowl team, Woolen stands to earn anywhere from $2-$5 million more than his 2021 base pay of $778,000. That could be more than his entire four-year contract as a fifth-round pick, total value $3.99 million.
“I heard you get paid to go to the Pro Bowl, but honestly, I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll take any extra money, especially when it comes to achievements and stuff like that.
“I would greatly appreciate that.”
Did he see this coming — six interceptions to tie for the league lead, NFL defensive rookie of the month in October, leading Pro Bowl voting, national stardom, 31 other teams wishing they had drafted him — in a few short months?
“I’ve got a list of goals on my phone that I look at. And, shoot,” he said, using his favorite word, “one of my goals, I passed one of them already.
“I’ve just got a couple more to go.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2022 at 12:26 PM.
