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Does Seattle Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf have another gear?
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf has had a highly productive start to his NFL career.
With his rare combination of size, speed and strength, the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Metcalf is one of just nine players with at least 5,000 receiving yards and 40 touchdown catches over the past five seasons. The 2019 second-round pick has reached 900 yards in all five seasons and 1,000 yards three times, including a career-high 1,303 yards in 2020.
However, that 2020 season was the only time Metcalf has finished in the top 10 on the NFL’s receiving leaderboard. After ranking seventh in receiving yards that year, he was 27th in 2021, 16th in 2022 and 18th in 2023.
Is there another level of production the ultra-talented 26-year-old wideout can reach? That question came up during a discussion Wednesday on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.
“I look at DK’s size, speed, combo, strength and ability as a receiver and I just wonder if there’s another gear he can hit,” Stacy Rost said.
Under previous Seahawks offensive coordinators Brian Schottenheimer and Shane Waldron, there were times when Metcalf would seemingly disappear from games and go for long stretches without a target. With new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb now in charge of Seattle’s offense, former NFL receiver Michael Bumpus thinks Metcalf could be better-utilized. Grubb excelled at putting receivers in position to succeed across town at UW, where he directed one of the best passing attacks in college football as the Huskies’ OC the past two seasons.
“I think that (Metcalf) having a coordinator who understands who he is and how to push the ball down the field and get him in his matchups (will help),” Bumpus said. “We’ve seen him move to the slot and do some of that stuff during some of their minicamp (practices this spring). So just like I always connect receiver play to linemen and quarterbacks, it’s connected to the offensive coordinator as well.
“How are you gonna use him? Because I think a lot of coordinators will look at a receiver like DK Metcalf and say: ‘All right, he’s a big X receiver. Put him outside, run a go, run a post.’ That’s what they said about him coming into the NFL. He only played one side of the field. … It’s up to the coordinator to get him outside that box and challenge him to do other things, and I think that’s gonna happen this year.”
Bumpus also thinks Metcalf can take a step forward in adjusting to the ball in the air. Over his career, one of the few weaknesses in Metcalf’s game has been his occasional struggle with dropped passes. After a drop rate of 12.1% and 10.8% in first two seasons, he improved to 5.1% and 5.3% in his next two years, according to Pro Football Focus. However, his drop rate went back up to 8.3% last season. That was tied for 64th out of 80 receivers who had at least 50 targets.
“He has to get better at adjusting to footballs,” Bumpus said. “And there were clips that I saw from him catching footballs from Russell Wilson (in a recent training session) and it looks like he’s getting more nimble, if you can do that at his age and his size. It looks like he’s doing that, adjusting to the football and catching the tough ball over his head. If you had to point to a part of his game that he can improve on, that was it for me. And I think that’s where he can excel a bit.”
Listen to the full conversation with Bump and Stacy at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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