Seahawks getting DK at his best? 3 ways Huard says he’s grown

Sep 25, 2024, 12:23 AM

DK Metcalf makes a touchdown catch in the Seattle Seahawks' 24-3 win over Miami. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

(AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

BY BRENT STECKER

Seattle Sports

The Seattle Seahawks may have the best version of DK Metcalf this season.

Seahawks’ DK Metcalf torches another defense with long TD

The sixth-year wide receiver is off to a big start through the first three games of the 2024 season with 262 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 17 receptions. He’s currently sixth in the NFL in receiving yards, and his average of 15.4 yards per catch is second-highest among players with at least 15 catches this year.

Metcalf has begun a season with this level of production only once before. That was 2020, when he had 297 yards and three TDs on 12 receptions through the first three games. The 2020 campaign turned out to be his best in terms of production, as it’s the year he set a new Seahawks single-season record with 1,303 receiving yards.

Seeing what Metcalf has done so far under new Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb made it easy for Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard to spotlight him first during the takeaways segment on Monday’s edition of Brock and Salk.

“I’m going to start with DK. We talked a lot about him this offseason, we talked a lot about him in training camp, we talked about him on (out) most irreplaceable (Seahawks) list,” said Huard, a FOX football analyst and former NFL quarterback. “He’s got to ratchet up on that list. Three weeks into the season, you just kind of look at personnel and you look at the entirety of the roster, he is what I used to talk about all the time in the early days of Brock and Salk (as a player opposing defenses have to prepare for) … He’s a No. 1, and that other defense is scared to death of him.”

Huard broke down three things he’s seeing that show the 26-year-old Metcalf is growing as a player. First up was something on display in a 71-yard touchdown reception in Sunday’s 24-3 Seahawks win over Miami.

.@dkm14 is just too quick 🔥

📺: #MIAvsSEA on CBS/Paramount
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/howGLWh1jC

— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024

“More importantly than even the production on the field, I think there truly are three ways that he has really grown. No. 1, his change of direction is better,” Huard said. “That little double move, there was no slowing down. He’s always been a skinny post (route runner). He’s always been a go-route. He’s always been what (former Seahawks coach) Pete Carroll talked about is just like a power strider. Get him moving, it’s like a 100-meter runner – like, dude is unbelievable. But changing direction, getting in and out (wasn’t something Metcalf did as much), and I love that double move yesterday, man. He did all of that at full speed. That was awesome.”

Secondly, Metcalf has kept his composure in check better so far this year, something that especially notable on Sunday when he went up against star Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who Metcalf has had a chippy rivalry with going back to Ramsey’s days in the NFC West with the Los Angeles Rams.

“Jalen Ramsey didn’t get him yesterday,” Huard said. “He tried to. He tried to give him a little tap here, a little push there, and certainly they got in a shoving match and (Metcalf) got an (offensive pass interference), but he went and talked to the official about it later in the game, just kind of bodied him up, kind of learned from that. There was just an emotional maturity that in the past, I don’t know if we would have seen that against a Jalen Ramsey.”

And the last thing?

“It’s easier with success, (but) it just feels like in listening to him every week, there’s more ownership,” Huard continued. “… Ownership, even in training camp – (Metcalf was) swinging and fighting, and he kind of owned that moment, and it feels like there has just been some growth in some of the ownership.

“You re-do that irreplaceable Seahawk list now three games into the season, DK is going to be way up there.”

Huard’s co-host, Mike Salk, added what he’s seeing from Metcalf.

“He’s certainly playing like a guy who wants to be in the top tier of wide receivers in this game,” Salk said.. “… A phenomenal start to this season for him. He’s also made a bunch more of those plays, especially in the last two weeks, that the top receivers make. The (71-yard) touchdown is like him in a nutshell, but how about the catch on the sideline that showed his physicality where he just kind of went up and got it? Pretty darn cool.”

DK out here doing DK things 😳 pic.twitter.com/FiTlGMp7wM

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) September 22, 2024

Hear the full conversation in the podcast at this link or in the audio player near the top of this post. Catch Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk from 6-10 a.m. weekdays.