Shaquill Griffin’s first career INT came against now-teammate Jaron Brown

Seahawks rookie cornerback Shaquill Griffin played 14.5 games — 29 halves of football — before he recorded his first interception. That wait is not necessarily a bad thing, oftentimes it can mean that a cornerback was locking down his receivers so well as to not allow the quarterback any comfortable targets, but certainly Griffin was hungry for what would be his first career INT.

There was less than 30 minutes of football time left in his first season for him to do it when he finally did.

Playing the Arizona Cardinals in Week 17, Griffin entered the game with zero picks to his name. He continued to be shutout in the first half before an 80-yard drive to open the second pulled Seattle to within 20-14 roughly halfway through the third quarter. On the ensuing drive, Cardinals QB Drew Stanton looked to go big on his first play of the half, but Griffin and safety Earl Thomas were very ready to make a play on the ball; Griffin got in position ahead of Thomas to make the momentum-shifting play and managed to avoid an interception goose egg for his rookie year.

Stanton’s target on the terrible overthrow: Jaron Brown, now a teammate of Griffin’s after the Seahawks signed him to a two-year deal in March. Seattle went 3-and-out on the next drive, and ultimately lost the game 26-24, but Griffin had his own minor personal victory in the disappointing loss.

Griffin was the 90th overall pick out of UCF in 2017, playing in 15 games and recording 15 pass deflections during the season. Per PFF, he was one of the most efficient players in the league in breaking up passes on third down and while he was overshadowed by players like Marshon Lattimore and Tre’Davious White, Griffin had a very special first year and is likely to be around for awhile.

And likely to record a lot more picks, if not a lot more non-targets to the players he’s covering, none of which will be Brown in the near future.