Seahawks’ flashy Devon Witherspoon is getting targeted more than any NFL DB. He’s winning
The returning Jamal Adams isn’t the only Seahawk relishing the team’s next, big stage.
Devon Witherspoon likes to strut, too. The rookie cornerback, the fifth pick in this year’s NFL draft, is taking his swagger and his aggressive style to New York for his third pro start. Seattle (2-1) plays at the Giants (1-2) Monday night.
“He’s big-time,” coach Pete Carroll said this week.
The veteran coach and former defensive back, at age 72, continues to teach cornerbacks during position drills at practices. So he’s been intricately involved in Witherspoon’s debut. Carroll said throughout the five weeks Witherspoon missed with a strained hamstring into September the defense already missed the rookie’s bravado and his instincts to diagnose then make plays.
In his first two NFL starts, Witherspoon has brought the bravado and instincts.
Folks around the Pacific Northwest and the NFL wondered aloud why Carroll and the Seahawks drafted a cornerback this spring with (thanks to the Russell Wilson trade with Denver last year) their highest choice in a generation. That was especially given Seattle’s big needs on the defensive and offensive line. The gripes grew when Witherspoon held out the first two days of training camp over timing of his $31.8 million contract’s bonus payments then wasn’t practicing or playing in training camp or any of the preseason games.
Now, Witherspoon is proving to Carroll why the Seahawks picked him.
The 6-foot, 185-pound Witherspoon has started at left cornerback in Seattle’s win at Detroit and last weekend against Carolina at Lumen Field. He’s immediately recognized and attacked passes thrown in front of him, particularly on slant routes. He’s run up decisively on running plays to hold the edge like a linebacker. He was in on tackles against the Lions on running plays over the center.
“I think he has a special instinct about the game that separates himself,” Carroll said. “He’s a normal-sized player; he’s not the big guy. He’s really fast and really quick and he’s got all of those attributes, but he’s not off the charts that way.
“It is his ability to analyze and go for it to make the plays. He’s got a play-maker mentality. He’s going to make the play and get his hands on the ball to get the pick, or the big hit.”
The night he drafted Witherspoon in May, Carroll likened the cornerback’s instincts to those of Hall-of-Fame safety Troy Polamalu. Carroll coach Polamalu at USC.
“(It’s) that natural instinct that separates some guys,” Carroll said this week. “They just have more awareness than others. I’ve tried to explain that to you by giving you examples of other guys that have been obvious to me. He looks like he’s on his way to showing everybody.”
Oh, yes, Witherspoon will show everybody.
He reacts to every play he’s involved in. He waves his arms. He poses. And he woofs at opposing players, including at their bench.
Witherspoon’s home debut
Early in the Seahawks’ 37-27 win over the Panthers Sunday, Carolina completed a relatively harmless quick out route for 4 yards on a second and 8. Witherspoon as the nearest defender on the sideline smacked his hands together and shook his head after he pushed the receiver out of bounds.
“They are trusting me to do my job,” he said.
Late in that first quarter he did that. He ran up on Jonathan Mingo and banged into the rookie receiver as the ball arrived, knocking it incomplete. Witherspoon then posed over Mingo with his hands on his hips. He later closed hard to break up a throw on a short, quick slant route in front of him.
In the second quarter Witherspoon pressed hard off the defense’s left edge and refused to let running back Miles Sanders get around him on a bounce-out carry. He pushed Sanders out of bounds for just a 1-yard gain, then jawed at him with his head bobbing even though he was the only Seahawk on the Panthers sideline.
Witherspoon’s run support at times has been unconventional, yet effective because of his quickness and instincts. He has charged into the backfield on opponents’ runs, taken on lead blockers with his outside shoulder counter to what edge contain defenders are taught and gotten inside to make plays. Contain defenders are coaches to take on those blocks with their inside shoulder, so the outside one stays free to keep from getting hooked inside and the play going outside him.
Witherspoon finished with 11 tackles and two passes knocked down against Carolina.
“Really, I was just playing for my brothers out there,” he said over the music inside the Seahawks’ locker room following the win. “Be present, and know everybody is going to do their jobs.
“I just made the plays that came to me.”
Strong early numbers
Like with Riq Woolen’s first NFL games last season as the Seahawks’ rookie right cornerback, opponents are testing Witherspoon. A lot.
In two games quarterbacks have targeted Witherspoon 22 times, according to Pro Football Reference. That’s the most targets per game at a defensive back in the league. New England’s Christian Gonzalez, another rookie first-round pick, has been targeted 10 times a game so far (30 times in three games). By comparison, Woolen was targeted eight times and had three completions against him in his first two games last season.
Witherspoon has given up nine completions in the 22 targets. That’s a rate of just 40.9%.
How good is that?
Last season when he was defensive rookie of the year and All-Pro, New York Jets cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner allowed a completion rate of 53.5%.
Woolen became a Pro Bowl cornerback as a rookie last season. He co-led the NFL with six interceptions. He allowed a completion rate 51.5% in 2022.
Witherspoon hasn’t been perfect. He’s allowed two touchdowns. Last weekend he got called for a somewhat mysterious pass-interference penalty against Carolina for grabbing a receiver on a curl route when Andy Dalton’s pass was uncatchable.
The Lions used Witherspoon’s aggressiveness against him to score two weeks ago. They ran a flea-flicker, a handoff to running back Jahmyr Gibbs then a pitch by Gibbs back to quarterback Jared Goff. Witherspoon jumped hard on the handoff. Wide receiver Kalif Raymond ran right by Witherspoon to the end zone. The Seahawk was 5 yards behind him frantically trying to get back in the play when Raymond finished the 36-yard touchdown pass.
Carroll’s reaction to that: It happens. He drafted Witherspoon over Seattle’s big needs on the defensive and offensive lines because of the cornerback’s aggressiveness and attacking mentality.
His first career stop was a sure tackle of Detroit’s Gibbs for a 1-yard gain on the first series of his NFL career Sept. 17, after Witherspoon waited behind blockers before making the stop. On the next snap, Witherspoon was true to Carroll’s teaching and stayed deeper than Josh Reynolds on what looked like a go route. Goff and Reynolds saw that. The quarterback countered with a back-shoulder throw that Reynolds read. The receiver stopped as Witherspoon kept on running deep. That set up Detroit’s first touchdown.
Asked what he’s learned his first two games, Witherspoon said: “It’s tough to win in this league. They are very physical games, and teams are trying to beat you. So it’s very tough to win in this league.”
So far, he and the Seahawks are 2-0 when he plays.
“Two really good games now. Two active, aggressive style (games),” Carroll said. “He’s working hard to make his plays and cover his guys up.
“Every time you throw the ball near him, he’s close. He’s done a really nice job.”
