It’s not that Seahawks kept DK Metcalf now. It’s: Will they keep him beyond 2025?
Pittsburgh wants him. Has since the spring.
What NFL team wouldn’t want a 6-foot-4, 235-pound wide receiver with national-level track speed, who runs faster than most school buses drive? Who can jump half his height to catch passes? It’s not like those grow on trees in this league. Or any league.
But, no, amid manufactured rumors then national reports about those rumors that weren’t news, the Seahawks did not trade DK Metcalf to the Steelers to reunite with Russell Wilson, or to anybody else, at the NFL trading deadline this week. That’s because the Seahawks were never going to.
The issue isn’t Seattle keeping Metcalf now, this season. It never was. He’s under a $72 million contract with the team who values him as a game-breaking, defense-wrecking threat.
The issue is keeping Metcalf for the future.
That future is sooner than it may appear.
DK Metcalf’s health
The sixth-year wide receiver is using the Seahawks’ bye week to rest the sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. He hasn’t practiced or played since Oct. 20. He used his 40.5-inch vertical leap to a catch a pass from Geno Smith out of bounds in Seattle’s only win the last six games, at Atlanta.
Coach Mike Macdonald said the team remains hopeful Metcalf can use the two games he’s missed plus this bye week to return when the Seahawks (4-5) play next, Nov. 17 at NFC West-rival San Francisco (4-4).
These have been the second and third games Metcalf has missed in his NFL career.
“I know it’s got to be frustrating for DK. This guy has been healthy his whole career, and then he has something that just requires more time even for an elite human that he is,” Macdonald said. “It just is what it is. Right now, we’re working through it, and he’s doing everything he can to get back as soon as possible.
“But, having the extra week will definitely help.”
Life without DK Metcalf
Macdonald had said he was “optimistic” Metcalf would play in each of the last two games. It was as if the rookie head coach was trying to will it to be.
No wonder.
Without Metcalf, the Seahawks were mostly inept on offense, losing to Buffalo 31-10 two weeks ago. Without Metcalf again last weekend they scored one touchdown in the first 59 minutes against the Los Angeles Rams. Smith’s three interceptions doomed Seattle to an overtime loss.
“DK is one of one,” Macdonald said last week.
It’s only been two games, but defenses have played the Seahawks differently while Metcalf has missed consecutive games for the first time since his final college season at Mississippi in 2018. That was the season before Seattle traded back into the end of the second round to draft Metcalf in 2019.
Then he was months removed from being told by a doctor he’d never play again because of a neck fracture he got in what became his final game for Ole Miss, the Oxford, Mississippi native’s hometown school.
Without Metcalf, the Seahawks have been seeing more Cover 3, single-high safety coverage than they do when Metcalf is playing. The Bills under coach Sean McDermott have used Cover-3 more than any other scheme for years. The Rams did it for most of their win in Seattle last weekend.
“We saw a lot of single high (safety against Los Angeles),” Macdonald said.
With Metcalf, the Seahawks have seen more Cover 6 than any other team in the NFL this season. Former NFL and University of Washington quarterback and league analyst Hugh Millen told that to The News Tribune Wednesday on KJR-FM radio.
Cover 6 is a concept that blends coverages. It employs double, bracket coverage to the side of the field where Metcalf aligns before the snap. A safety rotates over from the middle of the field to help the cornerback guard Metcalf in dual coverage against deep passes over the top. It’s more of what Metcalf has been getting from NFL defenses for years, so-called “cloud” coverage, a cornerback first then a safety hovering deep over the top of him.
Metcalf has still often beaten both defenders playing him deep.
“I mean he’s pretty good at running by people,” Seahawks offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said.
“I think a part of that is the confidence that DK (Metcalf) has in himself, that he can do that at any point in a football game no matter who’s on him. You got to love that. And we certainly respect that and have that built into every plan.”
In Cover 6, the side not bracketing a primary, big-threat receiver with a safety and a cornerback is basically in single coverage. Grubb often puts wide receiver Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba in formation opposite Metcalf to draw the cornerback and a nickel or safety into man coverage on each of Seattle’s other wide receivers.
So it’s verifiable Metcalf affects defenses—and, thus, opportunities for his teammates.
Which brings us to the question of his future in Seattle beyond his current contract.
DK Metcalf, next $100 million man?
Metcalf has this season and next remaining on the three-year, $72 million contract extension with $58.2 million guaranteed he signed with the Seahawks before the 2022 season.
In 15 years with John Schneider as general manager the team has re-signed foundational players going into the final season of their existing deals, usually just before in the first days of training camp. That would be July 2025.
That is, if the Seahawks see the 26-year-old Metcalf as a foundational player and intend to keep him.
If not Metcalf, who else is a bedrock player for this franchise?
Quarterback Geno Smith? His contract also ends after the 2025 season. He leads the NFL in completions, attempts, yards passing and interceptions (10) this season.
The Seahawks have no QBs of the future. The contract for 24-year-old backup Sam Howell, who’s played one snap this season when Smith got banged up and missed one play in Atlanta last month, also ends after 2025. Howell’s scattered passing and performance during training camp gave some around the team pause this summer, months after they acquired him from Washington in a trade.
If the Seahawks choose Smith as their quarterback beyond 2025, it’s not likely to be a long, foundational contract. He turns 35 during next season.
Lockett? At 32 he could be retiring in coming years. Smith-Njigba? Still under club control for two more years after this one on his rookie contract, with the team holding an option to retain the first-round pick for 2027. On defense, Devon Witherspoon? The Pro Bowl cornerback is in the same draft class and contract situation as Smith-Njigba.
Kenneth Walker is supremely valuable to all Grubb wants to do on offense. But multiple years and huge money to a running back is risky at the NFL’s most injured position.
Metcalf, still in his mid-20s, is that foundational player.
Based on the market, he could command $100 million in his next deal. The five richest deals for wide receivers currently are:
- Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson. Four years, $140 million, $35 million per year
- Dallas’ CeeDee Lamb. Four years, $136 million, $34 million per
- Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown (Metcalf’s college teammate). Three years, $96 million, $32 million per
- Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown. Four years, $120,010,000. $30,002,500 per
- Miami’s Tyreek Hill. Three years. $90 million. $30 million per
Hill is the only one of those over 27 years old. Metcalf will turn 27 next month.
Metcalf could join enter this top five next summer. If not, he will play the final season of his Seattle deal then test free agency for the first time after the 2025. Then some team on the market will likely give him a top-five deal.
He is the third player to have 900 yards receiving and more than five touchdowns in each of his first five NFL seasons. The others: the Eagles’ Brown, and Hall of Famer Randy Moss.
Some see Metcalf’s 35 receptions for 568 yards and three touchdowns this season, his fumbles and his penalties, and don’t think he’s worthy of a new, $100 million deal.
To that argument, Millen cites Metcalf’s effect on defenses and thus Seattle’s offense, beyond numbers.
Millen used the example Wednesday of the Seahawks’ 37-31 upset win at eventual NFC finalist Detroit in week two of the 2023 season. Lockett had two touchdown catches from Smith and got the headlines that day.
Millen explained Lockett’s two touchdown catches came against single coverage on routes to the outside opposite where Metcalf was getting two Lions covering him. On the first, Metcalf took the safety and cornerback from the left side across the back of the end zone. Lockett ran underneath that, from right to left, beating a single cornerback to the open left side of the end zone for the score.
The winning touchdown in overtime came after Metcalf lined up alone outside left. He again drew double coverage. Smith-Njigba was outside right with Lockett inside him slot right. The Lions had single coverage on each of them. Smith-Njigba and Lockett ran a switch, X-ing. Lockett was wide open past his lone defender to the right sideline for the score and win.
“He is the guy when there is an elite corner, he has to go against the number-one guy,” Millen said of Metcalf.
“Just watch the tape and see the influence. Obviously, he’s a physical freak. In the running game...he roots out safeties, crackbacks (blocks) on linebackers.
“His impact is far beyond what you see just when you throw the football to him.”
Millen said: “If you let him go (after next year), next year we’re sitting there saying ‘What’s the Seahawks’ highest priority? Well, they have to go get an explosive ‘X’ (receiver). And then we cross our fingers that he’s 80% or 75% of DK Metcalf.
“He’s arguably one of the top five most-feared receivers in the NFL.”
Grubb sounds like he’s already cast his vote.
“He obviously changes the complexity of the football game,” Grubb said last week talking about games with and without Metcalf.
Metcalf has said he thinks Grubb’s system in Seattle “has the potential to be special.”
Within eight months they will know if Metcalf will be sticking around for years to find out.
This story was originally published November 7, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "It’s not that Seahawks kept DK Metcalf now. It’s: Will they keep him beyond 2025?."
