That’s how many pass plays of more than 20 yards the Seattle Seahawks managed without DK Metcalf in their 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills. AJ Barner has the longest Seahawks gain and it was for only 20 yards in garbage time. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had the next longest gain for 19 yards, and that was also in garbage time.
JSN only has one catch of 20+ yards all season. Tyler Lockett only has four. Once upon a time, Tyler was as formidable a deep threat as anyone in the NFL. He is no longer that guy, which is why it’s more than likely he’s not on the Seahawks roster in 2025. Since 2023, he has only 13 catches of 20+ yards. In 2022 he had 14, and in 2021 he had 22 on a wildly inconsistent offense.
I cited this stat earlier in the week and it felt very relevant to today’s embarrassment.
Make it 9 thanks to Barner.
Metcalf leads the NFL in explosive pass plays and no one else on the Seahawks has more than four. That’s the value DK Metcalf provides to the current version of the offense. He’s not just one of the best deep threats in the league, he’s the only deep threat on the Seahawks. And that was the case last year, too. In the one game he missed against the Arizona Cardinals, Jake Bobo and JSN both caught 20+ yard pass plays in the first half and in the second half the receivers combined for 19 yards after halftime.
This is the reality of the Seahawks wide receiver group. Jaxon Smith-Njigba could be an outstanding receiver, but he’s not a deep ball threat and wasn’t even that in college. His average depth of target for his 2021 season was 9.3. You know how many targets he got beyond 20 yards that season? 18. He caught about 60 percent of his passes either behind the line or 0-9 air yards beyond the line of scrimmage. JSN did his damage underneath and intermediate in college, and it’s the same in the pros.
No, Jake Bobo isn’t anything above a WR4 despite our preseason-aided fantasies. He’s a perfectly fine role player and nothing more than that. Bobo is part role player and part meme. Laviska Shenault Jr basically cannot run any routes beyond the line of scrimmage and he dropped the only moderately deep target thrown his way. Dareke Young has two targets to his name in three seasons and should be another example of why preseason performance needs to be contextualized a lot more than it actually is.
There is a legitimate argument to be made about the long-term viability of Metcalf given the spells of drops, fumbles, and penalties he’s still prone to committing over the years, but this is why you don’t trade him in the short-term. Maybe he’s not worth $30 million a year relative to the other top receivers. But in Seattle? He’s worth a shit ton to an offense that doesn’t have anyone who can consistently challenge downfield coverage. And when your offense is limited to 0-19 yards, the safeties don’t have to respect the deep ball, and they can condense the field and impact both the short + intermediate pass game and the run game.
I hope that dose of reality (and much of last year’s Cardinals game) underscores that the Seahawks may have three individually talented receivers, but the interdependency completely breaks down when one of them isn’t available.
