Inside the showdown: Seahawks’ Riq Woolen and Devon Witherspoon vs Bengals’ Ja’marr Chase
Riq Woolen went home to Texas during the Seahawks’ bye. He may have turned around a kid’s school year there.
Or a life.
Jerome Woolen, father of Seattle’s Pro Bowl cornerback, was working last week at a community center near Riq’s Arlington Heights High School just off Interstate 30 in southwest Fort Worth, Texas. A basketball team of middle-schoolers was at the community center, and there was one boy on a team Woolen’s dad wanted his son to meet.
“There was a kid, they call him ‘Binky.’ He’s a taller kid. He’d just turned 13. Basically, he’d been going through some stuff at school,” Riq Woolen said Wednesday, back in the team facility before the Seahawks (3-1) practiced for their game Sunday at Cincinnati (2-3).
“My dad said, ‘Hey, just talk to him. And give him some shoes.’”
So the younger Woolen, already an NFL star in his second season, went to a local sporting-good store. He bought Binky basketball shoes, size 12.
“He just turned 13, and he wears size 12s,” Woolen said, marveling.
“It’s just something I wanted to do, because he is a kid from the community I was from. He was just going through some different stuff. A guy like me, making it from where I’m from, a kid seeing that, it’s pretty cool.
“One day when he makes it big, he can come back and give back, too.”
Woolen posed for pictures with Binky’s teammates. The Fort Worth kid who went down state to Texas-San Antonio for college studying and football was blown away at how blown away Binky’s teammates were by meeting him.
“It’s crazy how many kids back home actually know who I am,” Woolen said. “I understand I’m an NFL player, but it’s pretty cool going back. And it’s, like, kids from all over the city. Not just my community, but all over the city.
“It’s pretty cool seeing the kids notice who’s coming from Fort Worth — and knowing they have a chance to come from Fort Worth, too.”
The 24-year-old young man from Fort Worth is back on a huge stage this week.
To face the challenge of Ja’Marr Chase.
Riq Woolen vs. Ja’Marr Chase
Chase was the fifth pick in the 2021 draft by the Bengals, out of LSU. He was the NFL offensive rookie of the year two seasons ago; he had 81 catches for 1,455 yards (18 yards per catch) with 13 touchdowns as Cincinnati reached the Super Bowl. He’s made the Pro Bowl in each of his first two years in the league.
The Bengals had lost three of their first four games this season with quarterback Joe Burrow playing through a strained calf. But last weekend they looked more like their recent championship selves. That’s because Burrow and Chase lit up the Arizona Cardinals in Cincinnati’s 34-20 win.
Burrow targeted Chase 19 times in Arizona. Chase caught 15 of those passes, for 192 of Burrow’s 317 passing yards and all three of the QB’s touchdown throws.
Early this season as the Bengals struggled, the talk around Cincinnati was of the need to throw the ball deeper to Chase. Through four games he was averaging 9.8 yards per catch, about half his average from his rookie season.
But one of his touchdowns last weekend was a rainbow of 58.1 yards in the air, the longest throw of Burrow’s career. Chase split two-deep safety coverage by running a post route from left to right behind the Cardinals defense. He then made an exquisite catch over his left shoulder while staying in stride to the end zone. The 63-yard touchdown put Cincinnati comfortably ahead 24-14 early in the third quarter.
Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf was admiring Chase’s work on that play in particular while studying Bengals film for this weekend’s game.
“Just how effortlessly he caught the ball,” Metcalf said.
“He’s just a great receiver. I tip my hat off to him, on what he’s done his first three years in the league.”
Chase lined up 48 times on the offense’s left side and 25 times on the right against Arizona. He also aligned once in Cincinnati’s backfield, to Burrow’s right in shotgun formation. Chase ran a backfield swing route on that play while Burrow completed a pass down field, to a tight end.
All three of Chase’s touchdown catches came after he lined up on the left side.
That’s the offense’s side that Woolen is on as Seattle’s right cornerback.
Oh, yes, Woolen is aware that two-thirds of the time last weekend Chase was lined up on his side, and is likely to be opposite him the majority of the game Sunday in Ohio.
“Any time you go against a receiver that is considered high-caliber, I feel like it’s a great competition for me, because I feel that’s how I’ll get better in my career, too,” Woolen said. “I think him going against me will help him get better against anybody he will face.
“Me being matched up against him is something that I look forward to. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, a former secondary coach and college defensive back, typically does not have his top cornerbacks move around the field to shadow a top opposing wide receiver. Even Richard Sherman, the best cornerback Carroll’s coached in Seattle, almost never shadowed receivers; Sherman stayed on his side.
“I just go out there and play my part,” Woolen said. “Whatever scheme or call versus the Bengals, I’ll just run it.”
Devon Witherspoon vs. Ja’Marr Chase
Thing is, the Bengals move Chase around. A lot.
In addition to the 25 snaps on the right side, he was in the slot 14 times against Arizona. One time Chase motioned into the slot before the snap. Another time, he motioned from wide receiver into the backfield. Then he ran back outside left at the snap.
Even when he’s the last receiver outside, Chase is often lined up well inside the yardline numbers, nearer the slot than a typical wide receiver. That forces outside cornerbacks to defend more space to the sideline than they are used to.
That means Seahawks rookie Devon Witherspoon is likely to be covering Chase a lot on Sunday, too. Inside or outside.
Witherspoon has been Seattle’s starting left cornerback outside the last three games, the first three of his NFL career following his hamstring injury. In the Seahawks’ last game, Oct. 2 at the New York Giants, Witherspoon played inside nickel back against slot receivers for the first time. That was with usual nickel Coby Bryant and backup Artie Burns out injured.
Bryant and Burns did not practice again on Wednesday.
Even if they get healthy enough to play by Sunday, Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt are likely to stay with Witherspoon at nickel, which Seattle was in 84% of the time in its 24-3 win over the Giants.
Witherspoon had one of the best games by a rookie cornerback in team history: two sacks, seven tackles, two tackles for losses, three quarterback hits, one pass defended and a 97-yard return of his first career interception for a game-breaking touchdown. He played all 75 snaps on defense.
He started at left cornerback at New York. When Witherspoon moved into nickel, defensive back Michael Jackson played left cornerback.
Witherspoon joined Woolen as the first Seattle rookies to be honored as an NFC defensive player of the week in 19 seasons, since Michael Boulware in 2004. It’s unlikely the Seahawks are going to change against the Bengals and take Witherspoon out of nickel, where he was spectacular.
Asked Wednesday if Witherspoon will continue to play left cornerback and nickel, Carroll smiled and said, coyly: “Some.”
That’s a yes.
Woolen and Witherspoon versus Chase is the big game within Sunday’s game.
Metcalf expects Witherspoon to cover Chase a fair amount in Cincinnati.
“It will be fun to watch Sunday,” Metcalf said, “but I think ‘Spoon will get the best of him.”
This story was originally published October 11, 2023 at 3:28 PM.
