Seahawks Assistant Sanjay Lal Breaks Dow

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12.10.2022 @ 03.44

Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf may not have been https://www.proeaglesshop.co… in attendance at mandatory minicampa decision "he had to make, as described by head coach Pete Carrollyet the star wideout's game still received plaudits.The praise demonstrated how excited receivers coach and pa sing game coordinator Sanjay Lal is to work with Metcalf again, following Lals one-year exodus in Jacksonville. The popular-among-players Lal even described two of his favorite Metcalf moments during the pairs first stint together in 2020.Ive told people hes the best receiver Ive ever been around that took the techniques from practice into the game, Lal responded to a question on what area Metcalf has grown in the most. If we ran a stutter-hinge versus former Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson, how it looked in walkthrough, how it looked in an individual period, how it looked in team, is exactly how it looked against Arizona.On paper, the 22-yard catch Lal referenced is not mind-blowing. However, watching film of Metcalfs technique on the play is more impre sive, as Lal attested to. Its a shame we dont have the practice footage of Metcalf honing the route from walkthroughs and so on.The Seahawks' offense came out on their first drive of the second half up 16-14 looking to re-extend their lead after a Cardinals touchdown. Metcalf aligned as the X receiverthe single receiver away from the pair of tight ends and the trips-side of the formation. Hisstutter technique was beautifully designed for working against Petersona corner who loves to play pre s and pre s-bail.With Arizona running a 3-deep, 3-under fire zone, Peterson was e sentially one-on-one with Metcalf on the backside and opted for his pre s-bail technique in his deep third zone.Metcalf exploded low off the line of scrimmage, attacking the blind spot of Peterson in his first few steps. During this phase, Peterson kept his eyes on Metcalf to clear the po sibility of a three-step drop from the quarterback and https://www.proeaglesshop.co… a quick game route from the wideout.After this proce s, Metcalfstill attacking Petersons blind spotstuttered in his route and Peterson throttled down with this. Then Metcalf attacked vertically.By this point, Peterson was 100 percent thinking Metcalf was running an outside release go route deep down the field; he had cleared quick game and Metcalf, presumably, was stuttering to then gain a step on Peterson deep. Peterson worked to gain depth and width to the outside, aware of Metcalfs speed.With Metcalf continuing to attack Petersons blind spot, selling vertical and outside, the receiver threw on the brakes and worked back to his quarterback on the 15-yard hinge route, catching the ball away from his frame.Metcalfs cushion to Peterson and working back to the ball created a two-way go that the receiver was able to maximize. The corner mi sed the tackle and Metcalf maximized the yards after catch.Scroll to ContinueYou can look at the tape, Lal continued. Ive actually made cut-ups of, heres how he did it here, and heres how it looked in the game.The second Metcalf play Lal spoke about was more splashy. It was the receiver's Week 2, 54-yard touchdown grab versus the https://www.proeaglesshop.co… Patriots and then-reigning defensive player of the year Stephon Gilmore. The Stephon Gilmore V route, pylon route that he caughtweve got walkthrough reps of him running it exactly like that, Lal described.I about the Seahawks' schematic approach in that game:Gilmore was shown a ton of looks where Metcalf was thrown the ball underneath, with Seattle establishing that it was willing to attack the short-to-intermediate stuff when Metcalf was left in a clear one-on-one, regardle s of whether he was up against the shutdown corner or not.Just one minute after that slant catch from Metcalf against Gilmore came the play. Seattle wasn't content with merely working Gilmore underneath. It desired humiliation and https://www.proeaglesshop.co… touchdowns. The ball was snapped and Metcalf, aligned in the slot, exploded off the line of scrimmage.Gilmores defensive back dividers told him to align with outside leverage on this route and flatten any vertical release to his deep free safety, defending the slot fade first and foremost. Naturally, Gilmore moved to undercut Metcalfs deep cro sing route. After all, Metcalf is a very fast player and Gilmore needed to gain leverage on the route acro s the field. He also needed to become the underneath player in the coverage, with his safety helping over the top. Thats how the corner gets so many interceptions. Here, Gilmore was doing everything right, everything that has seen him receive the highest NFL honors.Lal provided detail of how Metcalfs route technique made that Gilmore undercut happen.He had to get a yard inside the hash, Lal a se sed. He had to get his eyes back for a count. Otherwise, Stephon would not undercut him. Its very rare for a receiver under dure s, under the lights to go do that in a game and he did it perfectly."You watch the clip, as soon as he touches the hash, his eyes come back inside, Steph goes underneath, and he puts his foot in the ground and goes over the top. Had it been one yard off, that play wouldnt have worked. Even with all that precision, it was still a bang, bang play downfield. So hes the best Ive seen at that.Metcalf was running acro s the field and the route distribution looked just like Y-cro s or similar deep cro sing concepts, I on the schematic elements. The Seahawks love these kinds of routes and called https://www.proeaglesshop.co… stop-variations of them in this game too.Except Metcalf then established himself as one of the most dominant receivers in the league. After feeling Gilmore begin his cut-off move, Metcalf broke upwards, stacking Gilmore, and then cut towards the pylon on the flag route. Gilmore recovered as well as any defender could in this situation. But Metcalf in this position is just too fast and too big.These two plays are a reminder, then, of Metcalfs dominance. Its easy to overlook the impact of the 24-year old's surgery-requiring foot injury in 2021. Hopefully, Metcalf will be fully healthy in 2022 and beyondplus signed to the Seahawks way beyond this coming season as well.