Many teams passed on DK Metcalf, they were concerned that he wasn’t a clean route runner. But he was a burner, a guy who could blow the top off a defense, which was really his main attribute. And he wasn’t always great with his hands. He also had a bad 3 cone time which showed that he had more straight line track speed, making teams think he lacked agility or a quick change of direction speed. The vast number of his routes in college were go routes, so that is what he leaned on, so he had the speed, but was shaky with hands and route running – but, those kinds of things can be fixed by good coaching.
I think it is easy to say now that a lot of teams missed out on not taking him. DK Metcalf had just 1228 YDs and 14 TDs when playing at Mississippi, as his ability was based on taking off downfield. But, what is pretty scary is that Metcalf is still learning how to be a complete receiver. Metcalf is still learning and getting better, the crispness of his routes still leaves something to be desired, but he has shown that he wants to be better.
Those things will come together with time and practice, and once he figures it out, the sky truly is the limit for the 23 year old massive specimen. Size at 6-4, rocket speed, and physicality. He has to make sure not to fall into the “muscling the ball” trap, and keep building on using his soft hands. He has been sharpening up the technical part and has gotten better making the easy catches automatic. Though he isn’t the most polished receiver running routes, and is mainly still getting by on immense athletic ability, he is getting better.
The Seahawks coaching clearly understands that he isn’t fully developed yet, because what they ask him to do is blow by DBs and get downfield. He can play physical with his attributes and can beat the defense deep on go routes, and can outmuscle smaller defenders on quick slants and grab YAC. And as he develops he’s truly going to be unstoppable.
It’s really important for the Seahawks to keep good coaching around him. They could truly have the next WR legend on their team. Keep in mind Seattle was a good running team last year, with a 4.8 YPC average – and their Oline was able to get some holes opened up, and DK still had 83 catches and 1303 YDs.
Then when they started slinging the rock, Wilson looked to him on roughly 23% of his pass attempts. His type of size and athleticism, combined with Tyler Lockett he can be virtually unstoppable. With what he is on the field, Metcalf reminds me in a lot of ways of Terrell Owens with his athletic abilities. Owens immediately looked like the best athlete on the field, when he started playing – but his route running and his hands were questionable. He got by on pure athleticism. Then, his route running got much better and he became very hard to control, becoming a 10-12 TD /year receiver, and 1200 – 1300 YDs was expected.
We can all agree that scouting is subjective, one can review and study players, to me, the eye test told me DK Metcalf was going to be able to fly by defenders, and that his size was going to be another problem with defenders. I am thinking many teams are looking back and wishing they used that same eye test. He has 5 TDs this year, and has exploited teams with 6 plays of 20+ yards this season. It is important to remember, he is only in his 3rd year and is already a very legit threat in the field. Knowing that he has a lot of room to still improve should scare a lot of people and have the experts thinking at 10StarPicks.com.
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