How good has Devon Witherspoon been in his Seahawks debut? Bobby Wagner has no comp
In one wowing month debuting in the NFL, Devon Witherspoon has proven he’s a master of two positions, cornerback and inside nickel back.
He’s a master of big plays that change Seahawks games.
And he’s a master of...the obvious.
“I just want to hit people,” Witherspoon said Thursday.
Rondale Moore can vouch for that.
Arizona’s third-year wide receiver caught a pass in the right slot last weekend during Seattle’s win against the Cardinals. As he has an uncanny knack for, Witherspoon, playing left cornerback, read the play before it happened.
The rookie, 6 feet and 185 pounds — “175 pounds soaking wet,” veteran Seahawks teammate Quandre Diggs said — ran away from his man to Moore before the ball arrived. As it did, he plastered Moore with a shoulder hit. It took the receiver off both his feet and onto his back into the turf.
All of Lumen Field emitted an audible “oooooohhhhh!”
It was the roughest 3-yard gain imaginable.
It was the latest example of how Witherspoon is just...different.
“He’s likes to hit,” teammate Bobby Wagner said.
Witherspoon’s latest hit got a national run as more evidence of why the fifth pick in this year’s draft is a favorite to be the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year. Witherpsoon’s odds for that award are second-best in the league, 9:4 up from 8:1 to begin the season according to BetOnline. He’s behind only Philadelphia defensive tackle Jalen Carter.
In the NFL hits such as Witherspoon’s on Moore often draw officials’ penalty flags, just for the sheer violence on a receiver especially at or above the shoulder’s like Witherspoon’s nailing of Moore was.
“No, I wasn’t really worried about the penalty,” Witherspoon said. “I was really more so worried about the fine.
“I didn’t get no fine.”
He smiled.
“So we’re not going to talk about it,” he said, “and I don’t want them to review it or anything like that, so we’re good.”
Thing is, Witherspoon saw it as a flawed tackle.
“I was really kind of mad,” he said, “because I hit him with the wrong shoulder. I was supposed to hit him with my right shoulder (to keep his outside shoulder free to the sideline for containment). But he was able to get outside my framework, so I had to switch to the left.”
Nobody else sees anything wrong with Witherspoon entering his sixth career start for the Seahawks (4-2) Sunday against the Cleveland Browns (4-2).
Witherspoon’s wowing debut
He’s played five games since he returned from missing most of August, all the preseason games and the opening game in September with a hamstring injury. In those five games he’s started at left cornerback. He’s excelled in the complicated inside position of nickel, fifth defensive back in the slot against the run and pass for the majority of defensive snaps.
He’s joined teammate and starting right cornerback Riq Woolen as the first Seahawks rookies in 19 years to be honored as NFC defensive player of the week.
Witherspoon earned that for his performance on national television Monday night Oct. 2 at the New York Giants. It was his first game at nickel after Coby Bryant got hurt:
- seven tackles
- the first two-sack game of his football life
- three hits on besieged Giants quarterback Daniel Jones
- two tackles for losses
- one pass broken up
- one game-breaking, 97-yd interception return for a touchdown
- one wacky, Gumby dance in the end zone 100% of defensive snaps played.
- 100% of 75 defensive snaps.
The following game at Cincinnati Oct. 15, he limited Pro Bowl wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase to six catches of 13 targets for 80 yards. Witherspoon has three pass breakups in that game.
He was covering Chase so tightly on his quick, short routes he broke up one of Joe Burrow’s passes to Chase when it banged off the back of Witherspoon’s helmet. That was one week after Chase went off at Arizona for 15 receptions on 19 targets for 192 yards and all three of the Bengals’ touchdowns.
Last weekend against the Cardinals Witherspoon would have had his second career interception, in the end zone, plus his third sack in three games on a wowing blitz on which he looked like a zooming slot car. But dubious defensive penalties on Seattle away from Witherspoon’s plays for roughing the passer and illegal contact downfield wiped out those plays.
But they didn’t erase the growing legend of “‘Spoon” inside the Seahawks’ locker room.
Wagner is a six-time All-Pro. He’s been playing for 12 seasons. He’s headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He can’t come up with any rookie he’s played with who compares to Witherspoon.
Asked if he’s seen any cornerbacks Witherspoon’s size — below 180 pounds — play with his ferociousness and physicality, Wagner nudged his head side to side.
“Not too many, to be honest,” he said. “He likes to hit. He likes to make tackles. He likes to make plays. He thrives on that.
“I really don’t know who to compare him to, besides himself.”
Despite more pressing needs on the defensive and offensive lines — Jalen Carter, anyone? — coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider made Witherspoon the highest cornerback Seattle’s drafted since Shawn Springs (third overall) in 1997.
The night they drafted him, Carroll likened Witherspoon’s starring play at University of Illinois to Hall of Fame safety Troy Polamalu. Carroll coached Polamalu at USC.
Five games into Witherspoon’s career, Carroll’s point is well-taken.
Witherspoon diagnoses and anticipates plays like a 10-year veteran. Unlike most cornerbacks — or about all of them at 180 pounds — he’s so eager to make tackles on running plays he was stopping them over the center flying in from his outside-left cornerback spot in his Seahawks debut Sept. 17 at Detroit.
Jamal Adams is impressed
Witherspoon’s bravado and enthusiasm are like Jamal Adams, his Seattle teammate in the secondary.
“It’s really cool to be around him, be around his energy,” Wagner said of Witherspoon. “He’s similar to Jamal, just very contagious, positive energy. When he makes that play, it ignites the whole crowd.”
Adams has three Pro Bowl selections, one All-Pro honor and a $70 million contract that’s a league record for a safety to back up his swagger.
He also has baller’s respect for his rookie teammate.
What does Adams think of Witherspoon’s performance in two roles, corner and nickel, in his first month as a rookie?
“I don’t know. You’ve got ask him on that. Because my rookie year, I was ass,” Adams said.
Adams was the sixth pick in the 2017 draft by the New York Jets.
“He’s a phenomenal football player,” Adams said. “Again, hats off to him. He’s very smart. He’s coachable. He listens. It’s a rare find, man.
“There’s a reason why he’s a top-five pick.
“He’s definitely not ass.”
Learning nickel on the fly
Witherspoon never played nickel. Not at Illinois. Not at Pine Forest High School in Pensacola, Florida, from where Illinois was his only and late, major-college football offer. Then in June before Seattle’s minicamp Carroll asked if he wanted to try nickel.
Carroll saw an exquisite tackler and cover guy who could fill two needs in one position, and improve Seattle’s horrid run defense from 2022.
Since Witherspoon became the nickel full time in that Giants game, the Seahawks have allowed three, 17 and 10 points while holding each of their last three foes to under 250 total yards. Seattle has gone from 30th in the NFL in rushing defense last season to third in yards allowed per carry this season (3.5).
“What I like most about playing nickel is that you’re involved in the whole game plan,” Witherspoon said, “You get to blitz. You get to cover. You get to really enjoy everything.”
Wagner says one of Witherspoon’s most impressive traits is how much he asks questions. Usually, rookies are seen and rarely heard. They don’t want to stand out. They defer to veterans, such as Wagner, Adams and Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs on Seattle’s defense.
Not Witherspoon.
“You’ve got to ask questions so you can know the answers to those scenarios in the game, especially like ones you don’t typically see,” he said. “Like, every team sticks to what they run, but it’s going to be a lot of plays out there that we didn’t see or we didn’t scout. You have to make those adjustments on the fly.
“So you always got to ask questions, just in case those plays come up in a game. That’s just what I like to do, so I can get the sense what I’m going to do and if the plays change in the game.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 5:10 AM.
