Seahawks DBs can shut down Patriots WRs in Super Bowl LX
· Yahoo Sports
The Seattle Seahawks ultra athletic defensive backfield can shut down the New England Patriots wide receiver group en route to a Super Bowl LX victory.
Devon Witherspoon has been lockdown for Seattle all year as an outside cornerback. Despite standing just 510 and weighing just 180 pounds, he ticks every box the game plan demands of him. He consistently holds tall and lanky and short, fast, and quick wide receivers to mediocre stats on the perimeter. Almost every CB his size has fared better as a slot corner (also known as a nickel), but Nick Emmanwori’s presence pushed Witherspoon outside to great success this season.
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Nick Emmanwori is one of the most unique defensive players in all football. There won’t be one in this year’s draft class, but every team wishes they could find one. He’s literally the most athletic safety that’s ever tested at the NFL combine. Even though he could read plays wrong and still make them, he’s started to play with poise down the stretch, and now he’s simply one of the best safeties in the entire NFL.
While the Patriots brought in Stefon Diggs this off-season and Drake Maye has elevated the likes of Kayshon Boutte and Demario Douglas, they’ll have to come up with revolutionary route combinations to get open versus those two. Their best hope is to target whoever’s being guarded by Tariq Woolen or Josh Jobe. However, both of them have also played at elite levels this season. Woolen is one of the most athletic CBs in the league himself while Jobe has high level technique dating back to being coached by Alabama by one of the greatest defensive back coaches ever in Nick Saban.
When your pass catchers are overmatched physically against an opponent’s secondary, you have to use shifts and motions effectively to open up space you wouldn’t get with releases and routes off the line of scrimmage. Expect the Patriots to utilize tons of pre-snap movement to cope with this. However, the Seahawks are coached by Mike Macdonald- who other than Puka Nacua’s futuristic insert motions, has dealt with every type of them at an elite level as well.
Unless the Patriots can come up with a Puka Nacua level performance or a motion we haven’t seen before, the Seahawks will be well prepared for their receiving corps. The only equalizer that can stop this is quarterback Drake Maye. If he can layer the ball against Seattle’s coverages better than Matthew Stafford did this year, New England will have a chance- and he’ll be looking like an all-time great.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks' secondary vs. Patriots' receivers: Super Bowl LX preview