3. Riq Woolen continues to impress his head coach.
Cornerback Riq Woolen had some up-and-down moments early in the season, including a few critical big plays allowed and penalties, and also missed a game due to a concussion. He also saw Josh Jobe move ahead of him in the starting lineup, but has still been playing a big role on defense, and has been playing at a very high level over the last several games.
“I want to make sure that we’re giving him the proper credit on how he’s played this year,” Macdonald said. “He’s the person that has done it every day and had the attitude that he’s had, and that takes for everybody, not just Riq, but for me, for our coaches, for the rest of the guys on our team, you have to make a decision that you’re going to have the intent that you have on a daily basis. Whether it’s how you’re going to prepare, how you’re going to practice every day, and Riq’s done that. I’m really proud of him and he’s doing a tremendous job. He’s had a great attitude, he’s been a great teammate, so you do those things and you’re practicing well, you’re productive in practice, and now it starts to show up in games. That’s the name of the game right there.”
As for the rotation at cornerback involving Woolen and Jobe, who, thanks to the Seahawks playing a significant amount of dime (six defensive backs) have both playing more than half of Seattle’s defensive snaps, Macdonald loves what he is seeing from both.
“I wish we could play with 12 guys and we’d just play all three all the time, but we can’t,” he said. “The guys have been incredibly unselfish. They understand what’s going on and when they’ve gone in there, they’ve played really hard and played at a high level. It’s been great for the team. I think it’s actually good for them, they probably don’t feel that, they want to play every play, but they are playing really good ball and they’re putting good tape out there, so that’s ultimately good for them.”