DK Metcalf on Seahawks Offense: 'Teams Just Started to Figure Us Out'

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf believes the team's offensive struggles in the second half of 2020 were due to the predictability of its scheme.

"Teams just started to figure us out," Metcalf said on the I Am Athlete podcast. "We've been running deep pass ever since [coach] Pete [Carroll] got there. Play action. Run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, go deep. Teams just said, 'We're just not gonna let you all go deep.'"

The Seahawks burst out of the gate, scoring more than 30 points in seven of their first eight games while Russell Wilson emerged as an MVP candidate. Seattle topped 30 points once in its final nine contests.

While the team's defense vastly improved as the season went along, the offense regressed. After topping the 300-yard mark five times in the first eight games, Wilson did not throw for more than 263 yards in the second half of the season. 

Wilson was sacked five times and completed only 11 of 27 passes in the Seahawks' Wild Card Round loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

The Seahawks fired offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer after that loss, and coach Pete Carroll said on 710 ESPN Seattle's Danny and Gallant that the team needs to establish more of a run-first identity:

"As the season unfolded, it kind of played its way into the style of the defenses that we were playing, and we didn't adapt as well as I would like to. And that's not what the fans want to hear because they want to hear 'keep throwing the thing all over the yard.' I don't care about that. I want to win. … We will do some things accordingly."

Seattle has had a slow-moving process in finding its next offensive coordinator. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported the candidates include Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey and Rams pass-game coordinator Shane Waldron.

Metcalf's comments, and his tone in making them, indicate he and others in the Seahawks locker room were frustrated with the offense's lack of adaptation as the season progressed.