Rookie Report: Seahawks rookie WR DK Metcalf shines against Steelers

In Week 2 the Seattle Seahawks traveled east to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers, burying AFC North foe at 0-2, while moving the Hawks to 2-0 and keeping pace with Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West. It’s a far different place from the 0-2 start of 2018, and the New Orleans Saints are looking at being without Drew Brees in Week 3 and then the team plays the Arizona Cardinals in Week 4. That could make an interesting and meaningful Week 5 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams even more interesting and meaningful.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself here, because the point of the Rookie Report is to report on how the rookies did, not get overly excited about starting the season well during the most difficult portion of the schedule. That said, there wasn’t a ton of notable contributions from rookies on Sunday, outside of the obvious from DK Metcalf, so at least there’s an obvious starting point.

DK Metcalf

Prior to Sunday Russell Wilson had only targeted a rookie wide receiver seven or more times in a game six times during the seven plus years of his career, with Tyler Lockett (4) and Paul Richardson (2) constituting all six of those games. Lockett and Prich now have to share that designation with Metcalf, who finished with only three catches, but two of them were very impressive. I’m sure you’ve already seen this highlights more than enough times, but I don’t care, you can watch it again.

That said, I was more impressed with his catch to open the game.

That was a fantastic snag, and if he keeps doing that all year, and the Hawks keep throwing the ball his direction seven times a game, it’s going to be all over. Metcalf finished with just three catches, but had 61 yards and a touchdown that all but sealed the game in the fourth quarter, until Chris Carson and Russell Wilson teamed up to make it a true Seahawks game late in the fourth quarter.

Marquise Blair

Blair didn’t play much, but he was credited with a tackle for pushing Diontae Johnson out of bounds in the second quarter, which put him in the box score. Outside of Metcalf, that made Blair the only other rookie to make it into the box score.

Thus, that’s basically where the rookie report is going to wrap up for Week 1, pending the release of the snap counts for the Seahawks. Ugo Amadi, Cody Barton, Ben Burr-Kirven, L.J. Collier, Travis Homer, Bryan Mone and John Ursua were all active against Pittsburgh, but didn’t make it into the box score.

Hopefully there will be more contributions from rookies to write about in Week 3 against the Saints.