The Seattle Seahawks have shared a lengthy behind-the-scenes look from their war room at the 2023 NFL draft on their official team website. There are literally dozens of interesting tidbits peppered throughout the article, and we’ll be writing up more of them in the coming days. For now, the one that caught our eye was this anecdote following Seattle’s pick of Ohio State wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba at No. 20 overall.
After the pick was finalized NFL Network was showing highlights of JSN, with Kurt Warner doing voice-over analysis. Apparently he called Seahawks star wide receiver DK Metcalf a “straight-line guy,” which general manager John Schneider found amusing.
“As the NFL Network shows Smith-Njigba highlights, Kurt Warner talks about Seattle’s talent at receiver, and at one point refers to DK Metcalf as a “straight-line guy.” This gets a chuckle out of Schneider, who says wryly, “Straight-line guy, huh?”
Warner is normally a pretty sharp analyst, but this is a tired draft-day trope for Metcalf’s game stemming from his poor 3-cone time at the 2019 Scouting Combine (as Brett Favre might say, who gives a s***?). Supposedly that’s why DK dropped to the end of the second round. While Metcalf definitely excels along the boundary, his route tree is more versatile than most give him credit for.
Nevertheless, Smith-Njigba’s skillset is an awesome complement to Metcalf’s, as well as Tyler Lockett’s. The Bengals might have a better receiver group overall, but on paper this is hands down the top 1-2-3 combination in the entire league.
