'Stacking Days' at OTAs, Seahawks WR Dee Eskridge Putting Tough Rookie Year Behind Him

RENTON, WA - Considering how he was snake-bitten by bad luck throughout his rookie season, nobody could have blamed Seahawks receiver Dee Eskridge for being a bit down in the dumps last year.

After all, Eskridge's career got off to a bumpy start when he suffered a toe injury during organized team activities and missed the first couple weeks of training camp as a result. The hits kept coming, literally and figuratively, as the second-round pick out of Western Michigan sustained a severe concussion in the fourth quarter of Seattle's season opening win at Indianapolis, causing him to miss the next seven games and visit a specialist in Florida.

At that point, Eskridge had one catch for six yards and two rushes for 22 yards on his stat line, failing to make the impact the Seahawks and the speedy wideout thought he would alongside stars DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. By the time he returned to action, he struggled to carve out a consistent role on offense or special teams, finishing with a modest 10 receptions for 64 yards, four rushes for 59 yards, and one touchdown in 10 games.

But while sidelined for nearly half the season and trying to find his way in the final two months, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron watched Eskridge improve through the adversity thrown his way and handle a difficult situation better than most first-year players would have.

“I saw a guy that was a little bit, probably a little bit down just from his bad luck, because he wants to be out here so bad," Waldron reflected when asked about Eskridge's rookie season after Seattle's fifth OTA practice. "He wants to be out here competing and participating, and then when he was able to come back, it wasn't a thing where you saw him like, ‘Oh, why did this happen to me?’ He just came back to work, and I thought he did a good job of progressing."

Now in the midst of the final phase of their offseason program with mandatory minicamp coming up this week, a hungry Eskridge returned to the VMAC on a mission. Eager to turn the page after a challenging first year and using the lessons learned through the experience, he's impressed Waldron and the rest of the staff putting together several quality weeks of practice leading up towards his sophomore season.

Among his noteworthy plays in recent weeks, Eskridge skied up to high-point a deep ball from quarterback Geno Smith during a 7-on-7 drill in Seattle's first OTAs session on May 23, coming down with the pass and getting both feet down inbounds along the sideline to the delight of teammates. He's looked far more comfortable with the offense as well, not dealing with the issues getting lined up properly pre-snap that were evident around this time a year ago.

“I think he's done a great job of really coming out here and stacking those blocks," Waldron assessed. "And I think we saw it in spurts last year, where he had that unfortunate situation with the early injury, and then a kind of middle of season or early training camp injury, then early season injury. But when he's been able to get out there and stack those days together, he looks impressive, he looks like he always did in our evaluation of him coming out where he's got that fast switch ability in the routes. He's got a good toughness in the run game. And so, he's really a guy that's going into year two with a lot of room to grow just based on some unfortunate circumstances.”

Now less than two months away from training camp, the onus will fall onto Waldron to find a way to get the versatile Eskridge more involved and feature his playmaking ability. In his limited action as a rookie, while he busted off a couple big gains along the way using his elite burst and running back background, mixing him in as part of the run game on jet sweeps became predictable for opponents and the Seahawks struggled to find other ways to get the ball into his hands in space.

Possessing a powerful lower body and explosive sub-4.40 speed, Eskridge has the tool box to create chunk yardage after the catch along with inflicting damage as a vertical threat. Unfortunately, with his injuries setting him back tremendously and only one football to go around, he had few opportunities to showcase his talents in either capacity last year with only three catches of more than 10 yards and no catches surpassing 20 yards.

But with Russell Wilson and his patented moon ball now in Denver, the Seahawks will be breaking in a new quarterback in either Geno Smith or Drew Lock behind a young offensive line, which could actually work into Eskridge's favor. At his best working out of the slot, his presence as a dynamic security blanket in the short-to-intermediate passing game could make him a frequent target in the passing game, particularly with Metcalf, Lockett, and tight end Noah Fant drawing attention.

By getting Eskridge more touches on quick passes and screens, the opportunity for downfield strikes and successful run plays from him will increase by default and he will draw far closer to playing to his potential. The key will be finding ways to scheme the football to him without forcing the issue. If Waldron can do that and the player avoids the injuries that derailed his rookie season, his presence should make life that much easier for whoever winds up taking snaps under center come September.