Devon Witherspoon and Tre Brown are near-elite so far in 2023
Let's put Riq Woolen aside for just a minute. The real standouts of the cornerback group this year so far are Brown and Witherspoon. OK, now I'll bring Woolen back into the conversation for a minute and say he hasn't been bad either even though he was a bit slow coming back from a knee injury. This might mean he just now might be 100 percent. A cornerback group with a healthy Woolen, plus Witherspoon and Brown is a very good unit.
Witherspoon currently has 7 passes defended this season which is tied for second in the league. This is despite him missing the first game of the season getting back from a hamstring injury and only having played four NFL games so far. He also became the first defensive back with 2 sacks and a pick-six in the same game which he did in Week 4. According to Pro Football Focus, Witherspoon is the third-highest-graded cornerback in the league.
Brown is the 20th-highest-graded corner in the NFL. In Week 6 against the Bengals he was targeted just twice but once was against Tee Higgins when Brown drew an offensive pass interference call and the other was against Ja'Marr Chase on a deep sideline route and Brown intercepted the pass. Brown now has 2 picks on the season.
Neither Witherspoon nor Brown appears to be having a fluky season either. Witherspoon was expected to be good after being picked fifth overall in the 2023 NFL draft and he has been. Brown was very good in limited time in 2021 before he injured his leg and was lost for the year. He seemed to still be overcoming the injury most of 2022. But now the Seahawks have three excellent corners and all three are under contract through at least 2024.