3 observations about DK Metcalf from Seahawks victory in Week 17

Sauce Gardner is absolutely the real thing

OK, to be fair, one of the issues Metcalf had against the Jets in Week 17 is that he was very likely going up quite a bit against a player who is probably better at his position than Metcalf is at his. Metcalf is very good. But Sauce Gardner is a freak of nature. At times in Week 17, Gardner appeared to be covering every receiver on the field for the Seahawks at the same time.

On Sunday, Gardner had 4 passes defended and he leads the league with 20. Seahawks rookie Tariq Woolen is second with 15. That’s a lot for Woolen but it still trails Gardner by 5 which seems insane. This isn’t an article about Garnder versus Woolen because those two players will never line up against each other and both are great.

But DK Metcalf does line up against Gardner and Gardner shut Metcalf down. Metcalf had 1 catch for only 3 yards against New York in Week 17. And it wasn’t like Metcalf wasn’t getting targeted by Geno Smith. Smith threw Metcalf’s way 5 times. Plus, Metcalf had a bad drop on a dime from Smith deep down the sideline. The blame for the miss was completely on Metcalf and was one of the few chances Metcalf had to make Gardner look not great.

Let’s safely assume that the Jets (because of their defense) and the Seahawks will be good for several more years to come. That should mean important games between the Jets and Seattle in near-future seasons and one of the key matchups to those games will be Metcalf and Gardner. Metcalf will need to do better in those games.