Getty Seattle Seahawks WR DK Metcalf
DK Metcalf has a penalty problem. The Seattle Seahawks wide receiver leads all players at his position in penalties this season after drawing another avoidable flag in Week 6 by throwing Cincinnati Bengals defensive back Cam Taylor-Britt to the ground after the whistle. In the week following the game, head coach Pete Carroll and former Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright have both come down hard publicly on the wideout. Now, former Seattle quarterback Brock Huard is criticizing Metcalf as well.
Metcalf has as many penalties as guard Phil Haynes this season, which is currently 15th-most in the league this season. He has 28 penalties since coming into the league in 2019, which is five more than any other WR in the last five seasons.
Despite this obvious issue, Metcalf was defiant after his latest incident, telling reporters in his press conference, “I’m not going to change the way I play.”
The unnecessary roughness penalty, along with Metcalf’s subsequent unapologetic response, has irked several big names within the Seahawks’ universe.
Brock Huard Is the Latest to Criticize DK Metcalf for His Penalties
On Thursday, October 19, University of Washington legend, former Seahawks signal-caller, and current Seattle-area sports talk host Brock Huard unleashed his feelings on the DK Metcalf penalties and the WR’s nonchalant response to them on his show, Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports 710.
Huard played a clip of Metcalf telling reporters that he doesn’t think the penalties are a problem and that “I’m doing pretty good if I look at it and judge myself.”
“You think that’s good?” Huard asked incredulously. “You think having two unsportsmanlikes, a facemask — you think that’s, you think you’re doing yourself good?”
“Why do you think these guys are just delusional?”
–@BrockHuard on DK and others who try to tell us what we all know isn’t true.
The 1993 third-round pick who spent the first three years of his career and the last one (on injured reserve) with the Seahawks looked pained as he listened to Matcalf’s excuses and couldn’t find the words at times to express his disbelief in the WR’s response.
And Huard was far from the only person connected to the franchise to publically admonish the team’s star wideout.
Pete Carroll and K.J. Wright Also Got After the WR
The first person to call Metcalf out after the game was his head coach.
“He knows. He’s got to clean it up,” Pete Carroll told reporters about Metcalf after the loss, per ESPN. “We have to make sure we’re aware of how they’re calling stuff. He’s a very aggressive player, very physical and it stands out and he draws attention because of that. So we’ve got to be cleaner. He knows it and he’s got to get it done.”
Retired Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright, who played with Metcalf in 2019 and 2020, also called out his former teammate on Brock and Salk on the Wednesday, October 20, show.
“Whatever you tolerate, you encourage,” Wright told Huard and his cohost, Mike Salk, quoting Alabama coach Nick Saban. “It’s coming to a point where if [Metcalf] is doing this during the game, and it’s not addressed, what are we doing?”
“Whatever you tolerate, you encourage.” Or so says @KJ_WRIGHT34 quoting Nick Saban.
KJ wasn’t wild about how things with DK Metcalf were handled on Sunday and has some suggestions for the future. Because as KJ says, “you can’t be doing that:”
Wright was careful to say that Metcalf the person and the player is not a “problem,” but his penalties have become a problem. And he says nipping this issue in the bud “has got to come from Coach Carroll.”
Metcalf will hopefully have a chance to atone for his penalty in the Seahawks Week 7 clash with the Arizona Cardinals. However, he is officially questionable on the team’s injury report with rib and hip injuries.