‘Competitive’ DK Metcalf owns last Geno Smith INT, explains in-game demand to Seahawks’ OC

This week of Seahawks self-assessments includes DK Metcalf.

He’s owning all you’ve seen him do.

The Seahawks’ star wide receiver is off to the second-best start to a season in his six years since Seattle traded up to the second round to draft him in 2019. Yet Sunday he called his quarterback Geno Smith, during their players weekend off following their Thursday night game.

Metcalf told Smith the interception the NFL’s leader in passing yards threw late in Seattle’s third consecutive loss last week was his, Metcalf’s, fault.

The wide receiver broke his 15-yard crossing route deeper against San Francisco in the fourth quarter of a 23-17 game last Thursday night, when he saw the defensive back jump inside the called pattern. By then, Smith was throwing the ball to the called route across the field, not deep.

“Yeah, that was definitely my fault,” Metcalf said Wednesday. “I was drifting up the field. Saw open space. Trying to do too much, and let the DB undercut the route. And I should have been staying flat.”

His taking full responsibility four days before his Seahawks (3-3) play at NFC South-leading Atlanta (4-2) didn’t stop there.

The two lost fumbles he’s had this season?

“I’ve been at the scene of three turnovers this year,” Metcalf said. “So, eliminating those and just taking care of the football, and just doing my job.”

What about him ripping the headset from his position coach earlier in Seattle’s loss to the 49ers last week, then getting on the microphone with a snarl and beginning his demand to his offensive play caller upstairs in the coaches’ booth with a forceful “Hey, Grubb”?

“We’re losing. We’re getting three and outs. Anybody (who) isn’t upset about that, then, you know, is playing the wrong sport,” Metcalf said. “I’m a very competitive person.

“And it was (offensive coordinator Ryan) Grubb I was talking to on the headset. Just tell(ing) him what I see: ‘We’ve got to run by defenders.’

“That’s what I was telling him.”

The issue for Grubb, Smith and the Seahawks offense: Meeting Metcalf’s demands to allow him to run by defenders is dangerous — and, at times the way the offensive line performs, impossible.

Geno Smith’s Seahawks passing game

This season Smith is taking on average 2.62 seconds to throw. That’s not lighting speed by today’s NFL standards of getting the ball out quickly to neutralize pass rushes. Smith is 18th in the NFL in time before throwing.

Quicker would help with the struggles right tackle Stone Forsythe and left guard Laken Tomlinson and the entire offensive line have had protecting Smith from charging pass rushers.

But quicker would also neutralize what Grubb sees as Seattle’s big advantage entering most games. That is, Metcalf with fellow wide receivers Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba using Grubb’s layered route concepts down the field against opposing defensive backs.

Former NFL and University of Washington quarterback Hugh Millen is now an analyst for KJR-FM radio in Seattle. He told The News Tribune on air Wednesday that on the 15-yard pass over the middle when Metcalf broke deep and San Francisco’s Renardo Green intercepted to gift the Niners a two-score lead, Smith held the ball for 3.6 seconds before he threw.

For context, Millen cited NFL statistics that 94% of all passes in the league this season have been out of the QB’s hand before 3.5 seconds.

Millen’s point is, Smith held the ball longer on his interception than Metcalf, and the defender, reasonably expected — longer than all but 6% of throws in the league have taken this season. Had Smith thrown it earlier, Green likely would not have been cutting in front of Metcalf, and Metcalf would not have gotten the idea to break deep behind him. An earlier throw from Smith would have been further across for a completion, likely away from the defender still on Metcalf’s back.

No matter, to Metcalf. Not publicly, anyway.

He took responsibility Wednesday for trying to be greedy on that play.

“We (Smith and he) talked on the phone Sunday, and I told him that was my fault for drifting,” Metcalf said. “It just goes back to practice habits. You’ve got to practice like every day is the last play. Every play, (whether) you’re down seven or it’s the fourth quarter and you’ve got to make the catch. I think it’s just me getting into that mentality during practice so when I get in the game, there’s no second thought about it. I know what to do.

“I’ve run the route 1,000 times, but knowing (In) that moment, (I was) just trying to do too much. Trying to go 80 yards in one play, when I shouldn’t have to. We shouldn’t have to.”

DK Metcalf assesses his season so far

Metcalf’s 469 receiving yards are fourth-most in the NFL. His only better first six games to a pro season were his 519 yards that began his second season in the league, in 2020. That was his first of two career Pro Bowl seasons (also in 2023).

Metcalf, 26, has the most receptions in Seahawks history for a receiver within his first six seasons (403). His 5,801 receiving yards in his career are second by 241 yards to Hall of Famer Steve Largent’s 6,042 for the most in franchise history over the first six years of a career.

Metcalf has 45 career touchdown receptions, though only two through six games this season. He needs two more touchdown catches to pass Largent for the most by a Seahawk in his first six seasons.

When asked to assess his season so far, Metcalf thought of Seattle’s three consecutive losses. They have ruined a 3-0 start. What had been the Seahawks’ early, two-game lead in the NFC West is all gone.

“The biggest thing for me is, we’ve got to win games,” he said. “That’s why I’m here. That’s why I like playing football...to try to do whatever it takes to put myself and everybody else in the best position to do that.

“So, (I) could evaluate my season (as), I think I’ve done a pretty good job. But: Not giving the ball away.”

DK Metcalf’s contract

Metcalf’s three-year, $72 million contract he signed in July 2022 (with a $30 million signing bonus, then a record for a wide receiver) ends after the 2025 season. With how the NFL wide-receiver market has exploded the last year and a half, Metcalf could command $100 million or more in his next deal.

Will it be from Seattle?

The Seahawks in 15 years under general manager John Schneider have typically re-signed foundational players to huge contracts just before the final seasons of their deals. For Metcalf, that would be next summer.

Grubb and new coach Mike Macdonald assuredly will be around for that decision.

Asked to assess Metcalf’s first six games, Macdonald’s first games as a head coach at any level, the 37-year-old coach spoke glowingly

“I think he’s off to a great start,” Macdonald said.

“I know I feel him throughout the games.

“I’m sure he’ll tell you there are some opportunities for him where you could even be off to a better start.

“And so, he’s on a roll. And he’s a guy that we believe in. He’s going to be leading us, and his presence is felt out there, for sure.”