‘More Bobo’: How this Seahawks undrafted rookie has gone from no expectations to camp star
What expectations did Jake Bobo have after he signed with the Seahawks as an undrafted rookie this spring?
“None, to be honest with you,” he said.
He chuckled.
Now? Seattle can’t get enough of the flowing-haired receiver from UCLA and Duke who strums air guitar to the music blaring through Seahawks practices. His coach says Bobo is soaring. His name has become a rallying cry inside the Seahawks’ locker room.
Veteran quarterbacks Geno Smith and Drew Lock aren’t yelling “DK!” for Metcalf. They aren’t bellowing “No-E!” (Tyler Lockett) inside the locker room.
They are yelling “More Bobo!”
“Jake’s flying pretty high right now. He’s done great,” coach Pete Carroll said. “He hasn’t just done well in the few plays in the game. He’s done well in practice throughout. He’s been really steady, like, it’s not a surprise to see him play like that in the games.
“He looks like he’s part of the flow to me. ...He’s consistent. He’s tough. He’s really, really smart and savvy. He’s been a real factor.”
“I feel so fortunate that we got him outside of the draft.”
Bobo on offense and safety/nickel back Jonathan Sutherland from Penn State on defense are the two undrafted rookies who have appeared headed the Seahawks’ initial 53-man roster for the regular season. That must be set by the league deadline of Aug. 29.
Bobo and Sutherland have been on the starting units in training camp and in the preseason games, for a team that for the last decade has been among the NFL leaders in keeping and playing undrafted rookies.
But Sutherland has become the latest of two dozen injuries since the start of camp last month. He is day to day with a groin injury, and may not play Saturday in Seattle’s final preseason game at Green Bay.
Meanwhile, every practice, every day, Bobo keeps on Bobo-ing. He has become a locker-room legend this summer.
“Everyone around here loves Bobo,” Smith said.
“Ever since minicamp and OTAs, he was a guy that was showing up on tape and making plays consistently.”
Who started “More Bobo!”?
Whom shall we credit for accelerating an overlooked wide receiver with infamous, 4.99-second speed in the 40-yard dash, who wasn’t one of the 259 players selected in this year’s draft, into the star of Seattle’s training camp and preseason games?
“Coach Chad right here,” Bobo said, smiling.
Running backs coach Chad Morton was passing by in the hallway of the Seahawks’ facility this week. Morton also was smiling.
“Started in OTAs (organized team activities practices in the spring),” Bobo said.
“Put a target on my back more than anything, man, for the defense.”
What’s Bobo think of “More Bobo!”?
“I try to tune it out to the best of my ability, to just go out there and be available for those guys,” he said, “so, hopefully, they keep throwing me the ball.”
They are.
Jake Bobo’s rise
Each day in practice, Bobo is getting increasing repetitions with Smith and the starting offense. Wednesday, he made two more ridiculous catches. He dove full extension over the middle to snare a throw from Smith just before it hit the ground for a wowing completion. Then he took a pass from Lock that Bobby Wagner had just deflected and caught that, too, while falling to the turf. DK Metcalf tapped Bobo on the helmet for that.
His offensive teammates roared again.
He also was back deep with Cade Johnson and Tyjon Lindsey fielding punts Wednesday.
Seattle’s final preseason game Saturday at Green Bay is likely to be Bobo’s most extensive playing time yet.
Or is it? Has Bobo become so needed the Seahawks won’t risk him getting injured in the last exhibition before the games get real Sept. 10?
Through two preseason games, Bobo is among the NFL receiving leaders. His average of 19.6 yards per catch is fourth in the league among all receivers with at least four catches this month. He is ninth in receiving yards (98), with five catches on six targets from Smith and Lock.
Not bad for a guy whose approach to his long shot with the Seahawks and the NFL this spring was, in his words: “Just come here every day and have the mindset this could be my last couple months playing ball.
“Hopefully work my way and make a dent in this kind of organization. Make a name for myself enough to, maybe, where I can hang around for a while.
“That continues to be my mindset. Go out every day, trying to make plays and be better than I was yesterday — and then when it’s all said and done, see where we’re at.”
The veteran quarterbacks who have started for four teams in this league keep praising Bobo for his preparation, his professionalism and his knack for getting open against defenders who all don’t have his 4.99 speed he’s tired of hearing about.
“He’s been a fan favorite in the locker room, for sure,” Lock said. “Give him the ball.
“He does everything right. He works really, really hard.”
Lock noted Bobo consistently has “zero MEs” in practices. That’s no mental errors. For a rookie wide receiver in the NFL that must know audibles, route adjustments, coverages, blitz reads, run-block assignments and more — all before he has to catch the ball — that’s impressive.
“He’s just a special football player,” Carroll said. “Hope we can fit him in.”
Duke and UCLA preparation
The catches in two preseason games, his touchdown against the Vikings Aug. 10, those are what we notice.
Carroll and Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron noticed this: Last Saturday night in the team’s second preseason game, Bobo had a 26-yard catch from Smith. His double move fooled the Cowboys’ cornerback into the ground. On the next play, rookie second-round pick Zach Charbonnet took off on a 29-yard run outside right. Once Charbonnet got past the crunching block by pulling center Evan Brown that sealed his lane, he had acres to run.
That’s because Bobo, lined up in the right slot, had fooled two Cowboys out of the play.
His break off the line at the snap had Dallas safety Markquese Bell thinking pass and ran Bell out of the hole. Then Bobo continued sprinting hard on an out-and-up route as if to get another pass from Smith. Cowboys cornerback Eric Scott ran with Bobo, back to the play. Scott didn’t realize Charbonnet was running free with the ball 15 yards down the field. Bobo then blocked Scott into the sideline to give Charbonnet 10 more yards.
Charbonnet stepped out of bounds, but didn’t know it. He kept running. Bobo kept running with him. Bobo blocked another Cowboy, DaRon Bland, 10 yards further down the field.
Three days later, Carroll was still raving about Bobo’s play.
“Watch what Jake accomplished on that play,” Carroll said. “He took care of two guys. Fooled one guy and blocked him, and blocked another guy. It was a terrific play, really subtle stuff.”
Bobo credits two men for his almost seamless merge into the Seahawks’ offense and, most importantly for a young wide receiver on Carroll’s team, run blocking outside.
David Cutcliffe and Chip Kelly.
Jackson “Jake” Bobo was heavily recruited to play football at Dartmouth. He was an all-league football, basketball and track athlete at Belmont Hill School just north of Boston. He chose Duke.
His coach there was Cutcliffe, an offensive guru and Peyton Manning’s college quarterback coach at Tennessee in the 1990s. Cutcliffe’s pro-style offense at Duke through 2021 was unlike the rest of college football. It didn’t feature short, simple play calls. Duke’s offense required more intricate offensive reads. Importantly for now in Seattle, it required Bobo to physically run block as a wide receiver.
Bobo was Duke’s captain. He graduated following the 2021 season with a degree in economics. With an extra year of eligibility, the NCAA’s “COVID year,” Bobo transferred to UCLA for the 2022 football season.
At Westwood last year, Bobo earned a master’s degree in transformative coaching and leadership in the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.
He also continued to learn pro-style offensive schemes at UCLA under Kelly, the former Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers head coach.
“A lot of guys coming out of college are used to more simplified offenses,” Bobo said. “Coach ‘Cut’ and my fifth year at UCLA with Coach Kelly, I mean, both of those guys definitely prepared me mentally for what I was going to get up here (in the NFL).
“You can see it a lot in the run game. We did a lot at UCLA, and at Duke as well, but more so at UCLA under Coach Kelly, he had receivers incorporated pretty heavily in the run game. That’s what Coach Shane (Waldron, Seattle’s offensive coordinator) and the offensive minds up here want to do. Receivers have responsibility in the run game, and I’ve come in and been able to do some of that stuff, just because I had a background in that.”
With Waldron and Carroll, if wide receivers don’t run block they don’t play.
Bobo run blocks. He’s been playing. And excelling.
“He knows his job,” said Lock, the former starter for the Denver Broncos. “He knows his assignment. That’s really all you can ask for.
“Because his physical ability can take care of everything else.”
The 25-year-old son of former Dartmouth quarterback Mike Bobo and Dartmouth ice hockey defender Casey Hagerman, grandson of former SMU and Dallas Cowboys player Keith Bobo, is 6 feet 4 and 207 pounds. Jake Bobo has the bulk to block and the height to catch passes above most defensive backs. He is showing the savvy to get open against zone and man coverage.
But does he have the speed to play wide receiver in the zooming NFL?
The 4.99
Ah, yes, his 40 time.
It’s like a scarlet letter Bobo carries into the NFL.
“Hey, listen, as long it’s ‘He ran a 4.9, but he looks pretty fast out there on the field,’ then I’m all right,” Bobo said, smiling. “But, hey, it’s a number. Obviously some guys look at that as a little more important than I believe it to be.
“ It is what it is. It happened.
“Now I get to prove what I can do without the stopwatch.”
He’s doing that. His catches in two preseason games have been while running away from faster defensive backs.
“He’s gotten behind people, too, in both games,” Carroll said.
About the only thing Bobo hasn’t done right this summer got him in trouble with Lockett, Metcalf and Seahawks veterans in the wide-receiver room recently.
“We failed (as rookies) to fill the cooler in the receiver room,” Bobo said. “So there was a pretty hefty consequence for that.”
A big fine? An embarrassing rookie talent show?
“Oh, it wasn’t a fine,” Bobo said.
“But it’s all good. It’s all good-spirited.
“They take good care of us.”
This story was originally published August 24, 2023 at 5:10 AM.
