Anatomy of a wild-card win: How the Seahawks can (and must) neutralize Jalen Ramsey

If the Seattle Seahawks have had a bête noire this season, it is unquestionably Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who has feasted on Seattle’s passing game, and specifically receiver DK Metcalf, in two matchups. This season, per Pro Football Focus, Ramsey has allowed 32 receptions on 64 targets for 309 yards, 127 yards after the catch. three touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 73.0. But against Seattle in Weeks 10 and 16, Ramsey gave up just two catches on only five targets for 16 yards, 16 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, and one pass deflection. Not only did the Seahawks apparently fail to have an answer for Ramsey; they admitted as much by refusing to target him as if Ramsey were Deion Sanders in his prime.

“He’s improved, and he’s got a great quarterback,” Ramsey said about Metcalf before the Week 16 game, in which Metcalf was targeted eight times, catching six passes for 59 yards in a 20-9 win. “He’s a Pro Bowler this year. He’s probably going to be an All-Pro. But I live for these type of matchups because I believe my value is extremely high in this league, and on this team.

“I was brought here to stop guys like him. And I’m going to do my best to do that again, this week.”

The box-score scouting, even at the advanced level, tells us that Metcalf, as great as he can be, has never been able to figure Ramsey out. But there have been plays left on the field that contradict this narrative, and the Seahawks had better capitalize on those — and on Ramsey’s own tendencies — if they want to ensure a win this Saturday in the wild-card round.

In Week 10, per Pro Football Focus, Ramsey shadowed Metcalf on 77.1% of his routes — the most he’s done so against a wideout this season — and allowed no receptions on two targets. Metcalf finished with two catches on four targets for 28 yards.

But on this play with 13:47 left in the game, Metcalf (No. 14) has Ramsey (No. 20) beat downfield on a deep boundary route, and Wilson overthrows it just a hair. But based on Metcalf’s ability to separate, that wasn’t a great rep for Ramsey.

And on this deep throw with 2:02 left in the game, Metcalf leads Ramsey to the boundary with a route nod before cutting to the quick comeback. Score one for those who don’t still believe that Metcalf can’t run routes. If the timing of this throw doesn’t take Metcalf out of bounds… yeah.

The comeback must be a key part of Seattle’s attack in the passing game. On curls and comebacks this season, per Sports Info Solutions, Ramsey has allowed 11 catches on 17 targets for 93 yards.

Here, with 44 seconds left in the first quarter of the Week 16 matchup, Metcalf looks like he’s going straight downfield on a boundary vertical route, which is about the worst thing you can do against Ramsey. But he pulls up after 15 yards, and if end Terrell Lewis doesn’t bat this ball down at the line of scrimmage, it’s an easy completion for chunk yardage. (Of course, it would also help if guard Damien Lewis had not been busted as an ineligible downfield presence, but I digress).

Ramsey didn’t always track Metcalf wherever he went in Week 16, and this near-miss from Russell Wilson on a deep pass with 8:54 left in the first half shows another way in which the Seahawks can get Metcalf open and ready for big plays — if his quarterback can hit those throws. Pre-snap, Metcalf and tight end Will Dissly run a neat little mesh motion pre-snap, and that lands Metcalf right in the lap of Darious Williams, one of the NFL’s most underrated cornerbacks this season. But Metcalf has Williams off the line with no deep safety, and this is probably six points if Wilson hits him in stride.

Meanwhile, Tyler Lockett has Ramsey at sixes and sevens with a stutter-go on the other side of the formation, which is another thing to consider — traditionally, bigger cornerbacks like Ramsey struggle more with smaller, quicker receivers like Lockett who are excellent in and out of their breaks than in big-on-big matchups like the Ramsey-Lockett reps.

Seattle’s passing game has been unusually out of structure over the last month, leading to some underwhelming performances from Wilson. Seattle will face a stern test against Ramsey and the fourth-best defense in the NFL per Football Outsiders, but there are codes that can be cracked, and setting Metcalf up with more angular routes, as well as giving him different receiver matchups, should be Job One.