Geno Smith’s, Seahawks’ answer to all the deep, bracket coverage: A new YAC attack
Even when the sun’s been out, there have been clouds all over the Seahawks’ offense.
Cloud coverage has been the defense du jour when DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett have been the opponent’s challenge this season. Cornerbacks covering Seattle’s big-play wide receivers short with safeties hovering deep, over the top, like a cloud, have largely taken away Geno Smith’s long passes.
“Yeah, as you could see, D-coordinators are trying just about everything to guard those guys,” Smith said. “It’s really hard for them to do it. Either they’re going to double DK or they’re going to double Tyler.
When asked about the lack of deep balls in the Seahawks’ passing game this week, coach Pete Carroll said of foes: “They know what you know.”
Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s answer? A new YAC attack.
Yards after the catch worked brilliantly for Seattle in its latest win, last weekend over Washington. And YAC has worked all season for the Seahawks.
Smith threw for 369 yards, the most of his 11-year NFL career, against the Commanders Seventy percent of those yards, 258, came on yards after the catch. NFL NextGen Stats says that’s the second-most YAC for a team in a game this season.
Waldron’s plan against the Commanders’ 29th-ranked defense was to have Smith throw the ball quickly and short, beneath the cloud coverage, and have the receivers run in the open space short.
Running back Kenneth Walker’s 64-yard touchdown catch and run that gave the Seahawks their first touchdown and lead in the third quarter was supreme YAC. That was a 1-yard pass from Smith.
The Commanders took away deep outside routes by Metcalf on the far left and Lockett on the far right. Their linebackers ran with tight end Will Dissly running an intermediate crossing route. So Smith did what he’d said last week he needed to do more of in a spate of eight turnovers in the previous four games: not force plays. He checked the ball down on a 1-yard throw to Walker underneath all coverage.
Walker ran 63 more yards past all Commanders down the right sideline for the game’s key score.
“We were trying to attack a different part of the field on that. They took it away,” Smith said. “I felt like I did something I was supposed to do, which is check it down, and was rewarded by a great play by Ken.”
Walker wasn’t Seattle’s only YAC-ker against Washington. In fact, YAC won the game for the Seahawks, getting them to 6-3 and staying even with San Francisco atop the NFC West entering Seattle’s game at the Los Angeles Rams (3-6) Sunday.
Lockett had 48 yards after catches against the Commanders. Metcalf had 40, including 10 on a short slant route on third and 4 with 28 seconds left in a tie game, then 14 huge YAC on the game’s final scrimmage play. Metcalf caught that final pass at the Washington 38-yard line with 21 seconds and no time outs left. Had he gone down there to save time, Jason Myers would have had a 56-yard field-goal try to win it. Instead Metcalf ran to the 33. The first defender tried to tackle him there. Had Metcalf gone down there, Myers would have had a 51-yard field goal into Lumen Field’s tricky, breezy, downtown and open end. Metcalf spun out of that tackle. He kept running, dragging two Commanders across the 25-yard line. He left Smith enough time to run the Seahawks into formation and spike the ball to stop the clock with 3 seconds remaining.
That made Myers’ kick a reasonable 43 yards. He drilled it down the middle to win the game for Seattle, 29-26. It distance suggested 50-plus would have been a challenge to make.
“I just knew nobody tackled me, so I wasn’t going to go down,” Metcalf said at his locker over booming bass’ music following the game.
Of his YAC-ing with no time outs and the clock running inside 20 seconds, Metcalf said: “Nobody tackled me. Just as long as I left enough time for the field goal and we won. We did that. I did that, so that’s all that matters.”
Smith-Njigba’s YAC of 53 against Washington was the most curious. The rookie was bubble-screen man against Washington. NFL NextGen Stats says he was the only receiver in the league in week 10 to have an average targeted air yards of under 1 yard.
Smith-Njigba’s biggest gain came on Seattle’s first possession, and it was from a play Waldron saw coach Sean McVay do for years with the Rams when Waldron was L.A.’s tight ends coach. On a third and 6, Waldron figured Washington’s cloud, deep coverage on Lockett and Metcalf could leave a linebacker initially on Smith-Njigba in the right slot. It did. Smith-Njigba ran across the field to the left side on a long, shallow crossing route. He easily outran linebacker David Mayo as a he caught Smith’s 4-yard pass and turned it into a 20-yard gain, with a YAC of 16.
It wasn’t just the Washington game that was so YAC-ky, either. The Seahawks are tied for the fifth-most YAC per completion in the league this season at 5.5, per Pro Football Reference. But their intended air yards per pass, the average distance of each target, is the NFL’s third-lowest, 4.5 yards.
Last season, Seattle was tied for the third-lowest YAC per completion, 4.5.
It’s part of how Smith, Waldron and the Seahawks have changed since trading Russell Wilson to Denver before the 2022 season. In 2021, Wilson’s final season for Seattle, the team chucked it farther down the field than any NFL team, including into the cloud coverage on Lockett and Metcalf. The Seahawks’ intended air yards per attempt in 2021 was 9.3, by far the most in the league.
Now it’s in the league’s bottom fourth.
“We’re still pretty effective with explosive plays,” Carroll said of this new year of Seahawks YAC. “Our numbers are up there a little bit.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 11:13 AM.
