DeShawn Shead says utility role in Seahawks’ secondary ‘could be holding me back’

Michael Bennett swivels his hips like “Ravishing” Rick Rude when he sacks the QB and Ricardo Lockette is known to wipe away at two imaginary sleeves and fix a fictional tie when he reaches the end zone. Their Seahawks teammate, DeShawn Shead, prefers another old-school homage, Dikembe Mutombo’s finger wag, whenever he makes a play – no matter where he’s been stationed on the field.

“They call it the Shead now,” Shead said Wednesday on “Danny, Dave and Moore.”

Shead has been a Swiss Army Knife in the secondary, flipping between nickel corner and both safety positions before ultimately landing as the starting corner opposite Richard Sherman.

Shead had 10 tackles and four passes defended in his first start at corner against Pittsburgh and a solid, albeit quieter stat-wise, game against Minnesota last week. He said he felt more comfortable finding his rhythm and techniques in that spot against the more traditional Vikings offense.

Shead says he works on his step-kick every day and making sure he stays on top of the receiver to eliminate the explosive play.

He said the secondary, as a whole, seems to be meshing better simply by realizing each should do his own job rather than feel the need to do something out of the ordinary to fix someone else’s mistake.

“Two people in the wrong spot – they are trying to find our weaknesses and find our mistakes,” he said. “This is the NFL, teams find that. So when you’re doing your job, you’re in the right place… it all comes down to trust, too. Trust is a big factor. And we’re starting to see that.”

Shead believes his versatility is an asset, and that he’s glad the coaches are confident enough in him to throw him into any role, but he also says it could be holding him back a little bit.

“Because I’m bouncing around at so many different positions, it’s hard to go in and really be elite at your craft,” he said. “To go out there and specifically focus on strong safety or specifically focus on corner, or free safety, or nickel, you start to lose the details in your game sometimes. So, it’ll be little things here and there – you forget little techniques here or different techniques there, and so I think that’s the only thing that could be holding me back.”