With Kam Chancellor doubtful, Kelcie McCray in line to start again for Seahawks

RENTON – Kam Chancellor’s doubtful status for Sunday night’s game at Arizona means Kelcie McCray is in line to start for the second straight week at strong safety. It’ll be a chance for McCray to move past the fallout from the breakdowns in coverage last week against Atlanta, one of which preceded the sideline tirade from cornerback Richard Sherman that became as much of a story as the outcome of the game itself.

Exactly who was at fault for Julio Jones getting wide open for his 36-yard touchdown in the third quarter remains unclear. When asked Friday for his version of what happened on that play, McCray said there wasn’t just one guilty party.

“My version of what happened? I’m not here to throw nobody up under the bus,” he said after some hesitation. “We just, we gotta do better as a team. As a whole defense, we gotta do better. It wasn’t one person’s fault regardless of what everybody’s saying or people are saying. It wasn’t one person’s fault. We gotta do better as a team.”

On the play in question, Seattle’s defense made a pre-snap adjustment in reaction to motion from Falcons tight end Austin Hooper, who moved outside to the far left of Atlanta’s formation. Sherman went with him, kicking outside after initially lining up over Jones on the same side of the field. Coach Pete Carroll has acknowledged that Seattle should have been in zone after the adjustment, but Sherman remained in man-to-man coverage with Hooper while Jones ran free in the area he was supposed to be covering.

All involved have declined to detail where and how exactly the communication breakdown occurred. Carroll said it’s not something that typically happens when Chancellor is playing, noting the job he does in getting the back end of Seattle’s defense on the same page. But Carroll prefaced that by saying McCray did nothing wrong in that instance.

“It’s a team effort,” McCray said when asked about his role in terms of communication when he’s starting. “Everybody has to communicate depending on the play and formations. Sometimes I may have to communicate with Earl (Thomas) or the linebackers or whatever, sometimes they may have to communicate with me. It’s not just one guy that’s responsible for all the communication. It’s a team effort thing.”

And being more sound in that area has been a coaching point this week from defensive coordinator Kris Richard in the wake of the communication issues that led to two Atlanta’s touchdowns passes. As McCray described it, Seattle’s defenders need to make sure they’re on the same page as opposed to assuming as much.

“Basically, I felt like he was just saying every play we should communicate,” McCray said of Richard’s message. “Sometimes you go out there and you think certain stuff is understood, and it’s not. So even the smallest details you should probably communicate on every play just to make sure everybody has it.”

He added: “It’s just something that sometimes you take for granted. Sometimes when you do stuff so much, you kind of, um, you kind of take certain things for granted. It’s like, ‘OK, I know he got this’ or ‘he’s going to do this’ or whatever. Sometimes that’s what happens.”

Sunday’s game marked McCray’s fourth start with the Seahawks, who acquired him in a trade before the 2015 season opener as insurance at safety while Chancellor was holding out. He made three starts late in the season while Chancellor was injured and impressed Seattle’s coaches with his steadiness in addition being one of the Seahawks’ primary special teams players.

McCray said he had a few plays from Sundays’ game that he’d like back but seemed pleased overall with his performance. Carroll was as well.

“Very solid,” he said of McCray. “He did a solid job, as he has. He’s a very consistent player. If he plays again this week, we’ll count on him to fill the whole role and do it all. We’ll just continue to get better communication-wise, and that just takes some time.”

One of McCray’s starts last season was in Week 17 against the Cardinals. He said the experience he gained facing them “definitely helps a lot” and noted the importance for Seattle’s secondary to stay on top of the deep passes that Arizona is known for. He also expects to see some of the same the same things that worked for Atlanta last week now that those plays are on film for the rest of the NFL to see.

“It is a copy-cat league,” he said. “We’ve been seeing those concepts all year anyways, but we’ll probably see those concepts more in the next couple weeks because we had problems with it last week.”