Seattle, WA
‘Great Feel For Game’: Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon Trending Towards Superstardom
RENTON, Wash. – Normally a man of few words, with communication being a critical aspect of the job from on-field communication to press conferences, first-time head coach Mike Macdonald has had to open up a bit more as he begins his tenure with the Seattle Seahawks.
Still feeling things out with OTAs kicking off this week at the VMAC, Macdonald acknowledged developing a rapport with his new players remains a work in progress and there isn’t a magic wand to instantly create a “mutual understanding of what kind of football team we want to be.” But before he could wrap up his response following Wednesday’s practice, a boisterous Devon Witherspoon decided to chime in while grabbing a Gatorade on his way into the facility.
“Let ’em know coach, let ’em know!” Witherspoon enthusiastically shouted.
Along with drawing laughs from reporters, Macdonald couldn’t help but crack a big smile and said “See, ‘Spoon knows!” before quickly shifting back into his serious, all-business demeanor and fielding the next question.
Known for his reserved, soft-spoken style, Macdonald won’t be mistaken with his predecessor Pete Carroll, whose infectious energy and rah-rah personality seemingly permeated throughout the entire Pacific Northwest anytime Seattle hit the field. But if there’s one commonality between the two coaches, it’s their affinity for Witherspoon, which shouldn’t come as a shocker considering the immense impact he already has had in his brief time with the franchise.
Coming to the Pacific Northwest carrying lofty expectations as the fifth overall pick, Witherspoon managed to live up to the hype and then some. After missing the season opener recovering from a hamstring injury, he posted a historic stat line while seeing snaps both as an outside cornerback and slot defender, becoming just the seventh player and only rookie since 1999 to record at least 14 pass breakups, three sacks, and eight tackles for loss in the same season.
From an advanced metrics perspective, whether in man or zone coverage, Witherspoon held his own shutting down opposing receivers. Per Pro Football Focus, he allowed only seven catches on 15 targets in man coverage with three pass breakups and no touchdowns while finishing eighth in forced incompletions. Equally dominant in zone, ranking in the top 15 in receiving yards allowed and pass breakups while also finishing in the top 10 in forced incompletions.
Despite playing on one of the worst rushing defenses in the NFL, the Seahawks would have been significantly worse without Witherspoon, who finished in top 10 among cornerbacks in run stops, run stop percentage, and solo tackles while adding five tackles for loss versus the run.
Even more impressively, Witherspoon’s off the charts efficiency as a blitzer created major problems for opponents all season long and his contributions went beyond bringing down the quarterback in the pocket. On 30 pass rushing snaps, he generated 10 pressures to go with a trio of sacks and also swatted three passes, earning a fantastic 22.4 pass rush productivity rating from Pro Football Focus while posting a 33.3 percent pressure rate.
Considering his outstanding numbers as a rookie and how his well-rounded skill set, physicality, and positional flexibility should perfectly fit Macdonald’s scheme, it’s no wonder the young coach seems to be grinning ear to ear every time he watches or talks about the ascending superstar.
“I mean, where do I start?” Macdonald said when asked about what he likes about Witherspoon’s game, specifically referencing his talents in the slot. “Great feel for the game. I mean, just picks things up really quick, but just understands ball and plays at a really, really fast speed. At nickel there is a lot of action in there, and so when guys have that type of skillset you can get them right around the action as much as possible. He’ll do all the things: He’ll blitz, man, zone, play deep in the field, so it’s a fun position to play.”
Just 23 years old, Witherspoon has wasted little time giving a taste of what he may be able to accomplish playing for Macdonald. In Wednesday’s practice, while primarily playing in the slot with cornerbacks Tre Brown and Riq Woolen on the boundary, he made a pair of impressive pass breakups, including showcasing elite closing speed to undercut an out route by teammate Jaxon Smith-Njigba along the sideline to create an incompletion.
Playing with Witherspoon for the first time after signing with the Seahawks in free agency, veteran safety Rayshawn Jenkins has been wowed by what he’s seen from his new teammate thus far at OTAs, specifically citing his elite ball-hawking traits.
“He’s a really talented young player for him to not be the biggest guy. He plays with a lot of heart out there, you can see it even from here. I was just thinking about this today actually, but his breaking on the ball is just elite. It’s some of the best I’ve probably ever seen. I was literally just thinking about it today. I saw him break up two passes and the receiver had a step or two on him and closing speed is crazy. He just gets right to the ball, undercuts the ball. He’s going to make a lot of plays as he has been doing coming off of last season.”
Without tackling or contact being allowed during offseason practices, Witherspoon will have to wait a while before he can dish out the bone-jarring hits he has earned a reputation for dating back to his illustrious college career at Illinois. But he could still be seen rocketing off the edge as a blitzer a few times on Wednesday, something fans should be expecting to see plenty of given Macdonald’s history of sending defensive backs as blitzers.
Last season, for example, Macdonald featured safety Kyle Hamilton as one of his primary pass rushing weapons. The former first-round pick out of Notre Dame generated 16 pressures on 37 blitz attempts, equaling Witherspoon with three sacks and producing two swatted passes along with a 37 percent pressure rate.
Though Witherspoon and Hamilton are far from carbon copies, starting with the fact they offer far different body types, they share many of the same strengths with an aggressive playing style and elite pass rushing ability. It’s no wonder Macdonald appears to have a vision of his newest playmaker staying inside most of the time to play to his strengths and allow him to wreak havoc on Sundays as one of the sport’s ascending young stars.
Since it’s only May, time will tell how Macdonald ultimately deploys his new weapon. But if the start of the offseason program serves as an indicator with Witherspoon flying all over the place making plays, it might be wise to take the over on how much Macdonald will be smiling on the sidelines this fall.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The NBA plans to make a decision regarding domestic expansion in the coming year, Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday, offering the most definitive timeline since the league began exploring the possibility of moving from 30 to 32 teams.
And if there are favorites, as has long been expected, Las Vegas and Seattle are at the top of the list.
“Not a secret, we’re looking at this market in Las Vegas. We are looking at Seattle,” Silver said before the NBA Cup final between San Antonio and New York. “We’ve looked at other markets as well. I’d say I want to be sensitive there about this notion that we’re somehow teasing these markets, because I know we’ve been talking about it for a while.”
Expansion has been a topic for years in the NBA, and it’s no secret that Seattle — which had a team until the SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 — and Las Vegas have long been clamoring for franchises.
“I think Seattle and Las Vegas are two incredible cities,” Silver said. “Obviously we had a team in Seattle that had great success. We have a WNBA team here in Las Vegas in the Aces. … I don’t have any doubt that Las Vegas, despite all of the other major league teams that are here now, the other entertainment properties, that this city could support an NBA team.
“I think now we’re in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them, and then sometime in 2026 we’ll make a determination.”
Cup future
Silver revealed on Amazon Prime Video’s pregame show for the NBA Cup final that the title game of the tournament may move away from Las Vegas.
Among the sites under consideration: “Some storied college arenas,” Silver said. “We’re looking at other ways we can do this.”
Semifinal games in the Cup will be played at No. 1 seed home sites starting next season, so the concept of a final four in Las Vegas was going to change in 2026 anyway.
Cup viewership increases
Going to a streaming service hasn’t prevented fans from watching the NBA Cup.
Saturday night’s semifinals on Prime Video — in its first season as a league broadcast partner — averaged 1.67 million viewers, a 14% increase over last season’s semifinals.
And Saturday’s doubleheader — San Antonio vs. Oklahoma City and New York vs. Toronto — saw a 126% year-over-year increase in social media views, the league said, with more than 400 million views across all platforms.
NBA Europe plans
Silver hinted that there might be some news next month on the plans for the NBA’s project with FIBA to start a league in Europe.
That makes sense, with the league set to play regular-season games in Berlin and London next month when Orlando and Memphis go over for a pair of matchups.
“I would say we’re casting a very, very wide net right now and essentially saying to anyone who’s interested, come see our bankers, explain to us why you’re interested, how you view the opportunity, what resources you would put behind opening a team, and then we’re taking all that information back,” Silver said. “And then I think sometime in late January, or in January, we’ll be in a position to have more serious conversations with those interested parties.”
Silver said he got the news on Chris Paul being sent home by the Los Angeles Clippers the same way basically everyone else did: He checked his phone in the middle of the night.
“I will say I was dismayed just for everyone involved,” Silver said. “As you know, I’m particularly close to Chris because he was president of the Players Association many years. … I would love to see him finish off the season on another team. He’s already announced this is his last season, so I’d love to see him finish strong.”
Silver said it’s not his role “to cross-examine the participants” and added that he hasn’t talked to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer about what happened.
“It’s an unfortunate situation that it ended the way it did,” Silver said. “So, I’m focused, and I hope Chris is now, on the future.”
Silver says WNBA talks are progressing
Silver said he and NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum are available to help the WNBA and its players strike a new labor deal, if needed.
Silver said he’s “optimistic” a deal will get done.
“I’m tracking things very closely,” Silver said. “We’re integrated at the league office. I talk to the people who are at the negotiating table on a daily basis. As I’ve said before, we, the NBA-WNBA collective, acknowledged that our players deserve to be paid significantly more than they have so far based on the increased success of the league. It’s just a question now of finding a meeting of the minds in terms of what is a fair deal. It’s going to require compromise on both sides.”
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA
The Seattle Seahawks keep winning football games, but recently the offense has been showing signs of regression after a strong start to the season.
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Seattle’s offensive woes were magnified in its 18-16 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. The unit had another slow first half, producing just 80 yards, and didn’t reach the end zone the entire game. The running game also produced just 50 yards on 22 carries. However, the Seahawks able to put together six drives that ended in field goals to squeak by a team they were heavily favored against.
Over its past five games, four of which were wins, the Seahawks have only one first-half touchdown. All four of those wins have come against teams starting unproven rookies or past-their-prime veterans, including a 44-year-old Philip Rivers who was playing in his first game since retiring after the 2020 season. The one loss came against Matthew Stafford and the Rams, who the Seahawks face in a pivotal NFC West showdown on Thursday.
Have Seattle’s recent problems on offense, particularly the slow starts in the first half, become a big concern moving forward? FOX color analyst and former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth doesn’t seem to think so. Schlereth explained why the bottom line with the Seahawks team is that it keeps finding ways to win football games during his weekly conversation with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Monday.
“Everybody game plans you, everybody’s got really good players. It’s hard to consistently win,” Schlereth said. “I think there’s a lot to be said for finding ways to win.”
Similar to when the Seahawks beat a Vikings squad led by undrafted rookie quarterback Max Brosmer in Week 13 after a slow start on offense, Schlereth saw the victory over the Colts as the Seahawks adapting to an opponent with a good defense but a quarterback who likely wasn’t going to be able to beat them without mistakes on Seattle’s end. And to the Seahawks’ credit, they didn’t have any turnovers against Indianapolis, which entered the game tied for the eighth-most takeaways in the league.
“I talked about the way the Indianapolis approached this game (with) the quick (passing) game, getting rid of it, screens, all those different things. Sometimes when the coaching staff puts a game plan together, it’s not necessarily about scoring 50. It’s about, how do we win this game?” Schlereth said. “And sometimes the best way to win a game is to say, ‘Hey man, we just can’t let our quarterback get hit, or we just can’t take a risk with the football,’ whatever that happens to be that week, and every week it changes.
“Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you lack some efficiency. But the bottom line to me is every week you find ways to win, that to me is the sign of a really good football team, and it’s done in a bunch of different fashions. So I just tip my cap.”
Schlereth added that one aspect that gives him confidence in Seattle’s offense to come through when needed is the connection between quarterback Sam Darnold and league-leading receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
“I will say this, the connection between Sam Darnold and (Jaxon) Smith-Njigba is special,” he said. “When they’ve got to have a big-time play, when they’ve got to have yardage, they seem to be able to find those yards, those big-time plays. That part to me is special.”
Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
Seattle Seahawks coverage
• Macdonald explains strategy behind game-winning decision vs Colts
• Seattle Seahawks’ win over Colts was ugly, which is why it was great
• Has a problem emerged for the Seattle Seahawks’ offense?
• Where the 11-3 Seattle Seahawks stand in NFC playoff picture
• Stacy Rost: Where Seattle Seahawks’ offense is trending in wrong direction
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December 15, 2025 (10:43 pm)
Would be interesting to know how many casings the police department finds weekly, monthly, and yearly…. gunfire is either being reported more often and checked upon by the police, or increasing in frequency.
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