Oh no, here comes DK: How can the banged up Dolphins stop the NFL’s best young WR?
Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf:
Scary on paper, even scarier in person.
He’s 6-4, 229 pounds
He lifts like a guard. And he runs like an Olympian.
Tough to cover. Tough to bring down.
And he has probably cost Dolphins coach Brian Flores’ staff some serious sleep this week.
“Metcalf is obviously a big-play guy,” Flores said. “... They’ve got multiple weapons. We have to do a good job of defending the deep part of the field, but also [defend] the intermediate part of the field and the run game and the screen game. It’s a big challenge. Obviously those big plays are the ones — you need to limit those.
“If you don’t, they just lead to scoring drives or scores on the play. That’s something that we obviously know and understand that. We’ve got to try to limit as many of those big plays as we can.”
Easier said than done.
Because Metcalf has been incredible this year, and the Dolphins’ secondary has not.
First, Metcalf’s stats, both traditional and advanced:
He’s third in the NFL in receiving yards (297), second in yards-per-catch (24.8), tied for fourth in touchdowns (3). Nine of his 12 catches have gone for first downs.
Russell Wilson loves to throw it to Metcalf deep. The second-year receiver’s average depth of target is 17.2 yards, and 19.7 of his 24.8 yards per reception have been before the catch. Wilson’s passer rating when he targets Metcalf? An absurd 139.2.
These are all stunning numbers, particularly considering that press coverage — which the Dolphins like to use — doesn’t seem to work. Metcalf has feasted despite getting just 4.1 yards of cushion on his targets, second-fewest in the NFL, per Next Gen Stats.
If there is a criticism, it’s this: He does have a high drop rate (13.6 percent), and his attention to detail sometimes strays (like when he throttled down short of the goal line on a deep catch Sunday, allowing Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs to knock it loose for a fumble).
Still, he’s a massive talent and even a bigger value when he fell to the last pick of the second round in the 2019 draft.
“I think every team should have taken him,” said Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. “I couldn’t believe what was happening in the second round. Couldn’t believe he continued to fall. Great player. great young prospect. We’re so fortunate to have him on our team.”
Metcalf, Wilson and the Seahawks would have been a handful for the Dolphins at full strength. They won’t be that Sunday, barring dramatic improvement from Byron Jones.
The team’s highest-paid player (and best cover corner so far this season) missed the last game and both practices this week with a groin injury.
If Jones can’t go, the Dolphins will have a decision to make: Stick Noah Igbinoghene on Metcalf, like they did with Stefon Diggs in Week 2 with little success, or turn to Xavien Howard, who is finding his form after spending the offseason rehabbing a major knee injury?
Howard has been better this year, surrendering one touchdown, seven receptions and 120 passing yards on 14 targets (73.5 rating). While he has given up big plays (17.1 yards per completion, 8.6 yards per target), Howard also has the team’s lone interception and has given up a respectable .78 passing yards per snap that he has been on the field.
Igbinoghene, meanwhile, has a worse completion percentage against (58.8), a far worse passer rating (130.8), has surrendered more yards (165), more touchdowns (two) and more passing yards per snap (.97).
“We all have the physical abilities to beat him, but we have to focus on ourselves,” Igbinoghene said. “We’ve got to do our technique and be disciplined ourselves, be focused on that.”
He continued: “I just have to be overall better myself. I feel like the Buffalo game, it just wasn’t me that day. I’ve got to come together, if that was the case, come together, do what I have to do as a man to prepare like I need to and dominate like I know I can.”
Added Dolphins defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander: “Sometimes it’s not just as easy as saying, ‘X, go cover him.’ There’s a lot of things that go beyond that because I think Tyler Lockett also needs attention as far as the coverage is concerned. They have weapons.”
Miami Herald sportswriter Barry Jackson contributed to this report.
