What’s up with Riq Woolen? Pete Carroll cites a factor from May of his Seahawks year 2
Pete Carroll likes to say the biggest growth and steepest improvement in a player’s career happens between his first and second years in the NFL.
Riq Woolen’s second Seahawks season has gone the opposite of growth and improvement.
And no one is more critical of him than he is.
“I’m hard on myself,” Woolen said.
That was after the cornerback got his second interception of the season Nov. 18 at Los Angeles — but also a crucial penalty for hands to a Rams receiver’s face. Woolen’s foul across the field from a third-down play gave L.A. a first down and negated a stop by the Seahawks defense late in that game. Los Angeles converted Woolen’s penalty into its winning field goal in Seattle’s 17-16 loss.
That started the four-game losing streak the Seahawks (6-7) are carrying into their game Monday night against Philadelphia (10-3) at Lumen Field. Seattle almost must win against the defending NFC-champion Eagles to keep realistic hopes alive for a 10th postseason in 12 years.
Asked this week about Woolen, Carroll said: “It hasn’t been the season he had dreamed of.”
Last weekend, Woolen again missed tackles. He was out of position.
On San Francisco’s game-clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter, Woolen, without an outside receiver opposite him to defend, bit hard running up at a fake hand-off. The 49ers sent tight end George Kittle from the opposite side of the formation past also-charging Seahawks safety Julian Love. Kittle ran into the deep area that should have been Woolen’s for the 44-yard touchdown catch that made a tight, 21-16 game a 28-16 loss for Seattle.
This week, Carroll uncharacteristically called out Woolen and safety Jamal Adams for being out of position and not playing as they were coached to against the Niners.
“The play to George Kittle on a play-action pass is not a difficult play for us to defend, but we gave it to them,” Carroll said Monday.
“One of them (a 54-yard touchdown catch by San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel) was in the safety area. The other one was the corner. ...
“We just have to make our plays. Those are well-executed plays by them — but plays that we’ve seen, and we’ve practiced and worked against. That’s why I say it in the way I said it; there was nothing new about those things. We should just execute well in those situations. And we didn’t.”
Kittle’s touchdown behind Woolen and Love came on a second and 9. Carroll said he and the defensive coaches stressed to the Seahawks the 49ers almost never run on second and 9, and often send Kittle down middle just as they did last weekend.
On the play before that touchdown, Woolen also had no receiver to his side. He came up fast and missed a tackle in the backfield on Christian McCaffrey that turned into a 1-yard gain instead of a 3-yard loss.
Riq Woolen’s season comparisons
Woolen has eight missed tackles, 15.7% of his tackle attempts this season, per Pro Football Reference. That’s tied for the 10th-most missed tackles in the NFL.
Woolen has eight penalties for 122 yards. That’s the most penalty yards in the league by one player. Four have been for pass interference. That includes a 47-yard penalty grabbing Dallas’ Jalen Tolbert on a deep route to gift the Cowboys their first touchdown and a 10-7 lead in the first quarter Nov. 30. Seattle ultimately lost that game 41-35.
Two of Woolen’s penalties have been costly hands to the face fouls that have extended opponents’ drives and gifted them game-changing scores. Woolen’s 6-foot-4 height means his hands jamming receivers off the snap are naturally higher into a shorter receiver’s chest. Receivers have learned to lift Woolen’s hands on the jam to get them into the face area, and draw attention of officials who have emphasized that call across the league this season.
No, the 2022 Pro Bowl selection as a wondrous rookie fifth-round pick and converted college wide receiver at Texas-San Antonio is not getting a second consecutive Pro Bowl selection this season. He’s not even in the top 10 among all NFL cornerbacks in the early voting results released this week.
Carroll has spent extensive time personally coaching Woolen on the coach’s unique step-kick technique and nuances of playing cornerback in press and zone coverage for the Seahawks since he drafted the tall, long-armed, speedy (4.26 seconds in the 40-yard dash) Woolen in the spring of 2022. The 72-year-old coach decided to draft Woolen then give him Seattle’s starting right cornerback job over Artie Burns and other veterans in the summer of 2022. Carroll often gets into cornerback drills at practices to drill Woolen.
So he has invested a lot in getting Woolen right.
A knee injury this spring
The 24-year-old Woolen had a freakish, non-contact knee injury then arthroscopic surgery this spring during organized team activities. He missed practices into training camp.
Seven months later, Carroll thinks that set back Woolen further than he and the team anticipated it would.
“He got a knee injury in camp. Right off the bat he’s recovering from an injury he has no background in, at all,” Carroll said. “Skilled athlete and all of that, it took a lot out of him. The setback and time, the times where we had a really good opportunity to really bounce back from the terrific season that he had as a rook, it was going to take a lot of preparation and prep to get him back on course again.
“It happened in such a splash for him. He missed that opportunity, unfortunately, so he hasn’t been I don’t think at his best in the last four to six weeks.”
Woolen is allowing a completion rate of 55.7% (34 completions on 61 passes at him, per Pro Football Reference. By comparison, Seattle’s rookie phenom cornerback this season Devon Witherspoon is allowing 54.5% completions. Adams is allowing 80.6%, with nine missed tackles.
Last season Woolen allowed a completion rate of 51.5%, with a passer rating against of 48.7 and an NFL co-leading six interceptions.
This season, with four games remaining in the regular season, Woolen has been targeted almost as many times as all last season (61 times, to 66 in 2022) with a passer rating allowed of 73.1 and two interceptions.
“It’s a weird thing,” Woolen said, “because the season started off kind of slow and I feel like it’s a new thing to me, because every year is going to be different.
“My first year you go get a lot of interceptions, you be a Pro Bowler and stuff like that. And then the second year you may not have those same opportunities, or if you don’t have those opportunities whenever you make a mistake it’s more, I felt like more on the magnifying glass whenever I make a mistake.”
Tackling a Woolen, and Seahawks, issue
Carroll is most concerned about Woolen’s tackling. That’s a must in the coach’s defensive system.
It’s not just Woolen’s problem. It’s a team-wide issue, and has been for years.
The Seahawks have 100 missed tackles in 13 games this season, according to Pro Football Reference. That’s third-most in the league behind only Houston and one-win Carolina.
Seattle is 28th in the NFL in total defense (367 yards per game) and 23rd in rushing defense (123.4 yards per game). The Seahawks have allowed 100 points and more than 1,300 yards the last three games, losses to the 49ers, Cowboys and Niners again.
Carroll said Woolen’s pass defense has improved as this season has gone on.
“His coverage has really picked up; his numbers are pretty good in coverage,” Carroll said. “We look at pass defensed to explosives and that ratio there and he’s in good shape right there.”
But...
“His tackling needs to be continually addressed, so he doesn’t get knocked around, doesn’t miss his opportunities. Missed a couple the other day (at San Francisco).
“It’s been a work in progress. It hasn’t been the smooth transition from year one to year two and capture all of the benefit of that.
“He’s working hard at it.”
Woolen shrugs and uses his favorite word in his native, Fort Worth, Texas, drawl to assess his season so far. He’s still only a few years removed from being a wide receiver.
“Shoot...you can’t change the past,” he said. “You can’t go back.
“You got to watch the film and see the corrections to make.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 10:43 AM.
