Devon Witherspoon serving a Seahawks penance — now competing with Coby Bryant at nickel
Devon Witherspoon is making sure EVERYONE knows he’s back on the field.
Particularly the Seahawks receivers he’s slamming.
Tuesday, in the team’s sixth practice of training camp that was Witherspoon’s third, Seattle’s top rookie came sprinting over from the nickel defensive-back spot he’s been playing often this week. Wide receiver Dee Eskridge had just caught the ball outside. Witherspoon smashed into Eskridge, lowered his shoulder into his chest and drove him into the sideline, forcefully.
These are supposed to be form-wrap tackling scrimmages, without bringing players to the ground.
Jamal Adams loved it. The safety on the physically-unable-to-perform list recovering from a torn quadriceps tendon last year stomped off that sideline and pounded Witherspoon on the back. His defensive mates joined in the celebration. Eskridge was not amused.
Monday, Witherspoon ran from nickel to the opposite sideline, took on 6-foot-7 tight end Colby Parkinson trying to run him over, and planted Parkinson into the boundary like another first-down marker.
Bobby Wagner loved that, too.
“He bowed up,” the six-time All-Pro linebacker and captain said of Witherspoon, approvingly.
The rookie fifth-overall pick in May is as advertised. He’s brash, aggressive and itching to hit. Those with him on the Seahawks defense that must be tougher this season are all for it. They love his enthusiasm and his juice.
When he’s not hitting just about everyone standing on the field, Witherspoon is often dancing to the blaring soundtrack of rap music that accompanies every Seahawks drill and practice.
“Let him go,” defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt said. “The way the rules go with the (NFL) CBA, it’s dialed back enough. They protect them.
“We’ve got to make sure when it’s time to go, it’s go time.”
The one thing Witherspoon is not so far?
He’s not starting.
Tuesday continued what appeared to be something of a penance Witherspoon is serving for having skipped the first two days of camp in a holdout. That move was to get more guaranteed money sooner from the Seahawks in his already-slotted, $31.8 rookie contract.
He finally signed his deal Friday. Everyone else on the 90-man roster reported three days before him, on Tuesday.
Before his holdout, Witherspoon had been the starting left cornerback. He was that from the first practice of the first minicamp in May all through organized team activities and the final minicamp in June.
Since Friday and through the first week of training camp, Tre Brown has been the starting left cornerback. Witherspoon has been the No. 2 on that side.
It appears nothing, including rookies holding out for two days, including for the fifth pick in the draft, comes without a cost. Even for the Seahawks with players-first coach Pete Carroll.
Witherspoon has also been a nickel defensive back inside against slot receivers. That began in June during the team’s last full minicamp. He got his most time there yet Tuesday, with the starting defense in third-down scrimmages.
He lined up multiple times opposite fellow rookie first-round pick Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the team’s new slot receiver. For the first time this week, Geno Smith threw at Smith-Njigba with Witherspoon covering him inside. Smith-Njigba caught a short pass outside on an out route, with Witherspoon right with him but the pass just out of his reach.
Hurtt said after the practice Witherspoon and Coby Bryant are competing for the primary nickel DB job Bryant had as a rookie last season.
Bryant and Witherspoon have been inside together in dime, six-defensive back schemes the starting defense has used extensively in the red zone the last two practices.
Many are wondering — or concerned — why Seattle’s highest-draft cornerback since Shawn Springs (third overall) in 1997 is a nickel back.
Part of it is Brown’s performance so far. Part of it is Michael Jackson’s relentless play on the right side while 2022 rookie Pro Bowl star Riq Woolen is on the physically-unable-to-perform list following arthroscopic knee surgery in May.
Part of it is the coaching staff wanting to see how Witherspoon covers inside and outside receivers, to potentially make him an interchangeable, match-up cover man during games.
And part of it is to take advantage of him wanting to tackle anything and anybody on the field. Violently.
“He has great instincts and feel. That’s what goes on at that position,” Hurtt said. “The nickel can be a hard transition for young people, because now you’ve got the whole field, as opposed to just being outside alone all day long.
“He has unbelievable feel and instincts and understanding. We are going to grow and develop him, and it’s an ongoing competition there with him and Coby in that spot.”
Bryant has been working back as a safety for the first time this week during 11-on-11 scrimmaging. He was the Jim Thorpe Award winner as college football’s best defensive back at the University of Cincinnati two seasons ago.
“You want to have guys that give you position flexibility,” Hurtt said. “He’s still a nickel for us.
“Coby can play a lot of different spots. Cerebral player, really smart. A great communicator. You’ve heard me talk about what (communication) safeties have to do in this defense. So it’s a natural fit.
“He’s a good football player. Anybody who can take the ball away from the opponent, we are going to find ways to get him on the field.”
The depth and quality of their young defensive backs is becoming the obvious strength of Seattle’s defense, with the defensive line, linebackers and run stopping remaining the key area it must improve in 2023.
This week is showing Witherspoon and Bryant might be on the field together often this season.
Just maybe not in the place everyone expected Witherspoon to be — and where he had been, until his holdout.
This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 4:55 PM.
