Why Seahawks love Devon Witherspoon poised for breakout on 1st NFL playoff stage

When Leonard Williams first met Devon Witherspoon, he thought something was wrong with his teammate.

“I just thought he had ‘Little Man’s Syndrome,’” Williams said.

Witherspoon shakes his head and wags his index finger in that taunting, no-you-don’t way — like basketball tower Dikembe Mutombo used to blocking a shot.

Witherspoon woofs at opponents like he gets paid by the word, not the play.

He’s usually the smallest man on the field. Yet he slams ball carriers and even linemen who outweigh him by 100 pounds, or more. That is, if you believe the three-time Pro Bowl cornerback in his first three NFL seasons really is 6 feet and 185 pounds, which the Seahawks generously list him as.

Witherspoon is the littlest huge reason Seattle has the league’s top scoring defense. He’s a key why the Seahawks are 14-3 and two home wins from the Super Bowl entering Saturday night’s NFC divisional playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers (13-5) at Lumen Field (5 p.m., FOX television, channel 13 locally). The rest of the nation may not realize that. Saturday will be Witherspoon’s first NFL playoff game.

They may be a few days after from learning. They are about to see the three-time Pro Bowl cornerback in his first three NFL seasons since Seattle drafted him as the fifth pick in 2023 talks as good a game as he plays.

Or better.

“For a small guy, I mean, that guy, he’s chirpin’. He’s talkin’. He’s on fire,” Williams, the Seahawks’ Pro Bowl defensive end, said of Witherspoon. “He plays with his head cut off, like his hair is on fire.

“I just love it. I’m in the trenches, and a lot of time I see guys getting slammed by D-linemen. You know, big guys,” the 6-5, 310-pound Williams said Wednesday. “But I’m seeing Witherspoon flying down the field, making TFLs (tackles for loss), slamming running backs who are way bigger than him.

“Him bringing that passion and energy to the defense lights everyone else up, too.”

He’s relentless. He’s ornery. And he’s damn good. Witherspoon flies into the line of scrimmage and tackles like a 240-pound linebacker. He’s been doing that since the first plays of his first NFL game, in September 2023 at Detroit. He zoomed from outside left cornerback to be in on the stop — at the line on Lions dive-run play, over the center.

Witherspoon also covers wide receivers on pass routes like he’s an All-Pro cornerback. He excels inside and outside coach Mike Macdonald’s defense. Until 12th-year veteran defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence arrived this season and dominated games into making the Pro Bowl last month, Witherspoon was for 2 1/2 seasons the best player on Seattle’s defense. And maybe the team.

And he wants everyone to know it.

“I’m trying to be one of the best corners (in the NFL),” Witherspoon said. He said two games into his pro career, in September 2023.

Macdonald calls Witherspoon an Army term for Seattle’s top-ranked defense: A “force-multiplier.”

Witherspoon calls Macdonald “nerdy.”

“He’s cool people, man. But he’s different, though,” Witherspoon said. “He’s like...he a brain guy. I mean, he’s really smart and intellectual. So, it’s like, the way he builds defenses is not natural or normal around the league. That’s what makes him different.”

The head coach’s retort to that in the spring of 2024, Macdonald’s first months leading the Seahawks after being the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator?

“I told him today I couldn’t believe he was the smartest football player of all time — and it’s only his second year in the NFL,” Macdonald said then.

“He’s got an answer for everything.”

This week, veteran safety Julian Love was standing around the corner from an entrance to the locker room before practice. And he was thinking about Witherspoon.

He could he not?

“I mean, you take two steps that way, I’m sure you can hear him in the locker room,” Love said.

“You can hear him when he’s eating upstairs.”

Love laughed.

“In the team room, when Mike’s talking, he might be yelling something,” Love said. “He’s just himself, no matter his audience.”

Love says Witherspoon has to be Macdonald’s favorite player.

“I don’t think there’s a player on the team loves more than ‘Spoon’ — and that’s, like, crazy. Because they are at opposite ends of the spectrum (of personalities).” Witherspoon doesn’t apologize.

“That’s just always been me,” he said.

Why Mike Macdonald loves Devon Witherspoon

No wonder Macdonald loves Witherspoon.

He’s so good at so much — versus the run and the pass, as an outside cornerback and inside slot nickel plus run defender— Witherspoon allows the defensive guru to expand his coverages, blitzes, personnel and alignment at the snap to confuse offenses.

On the field, on the sideline, he celebrates teammates’ successes like he’s their 25-year-old dad. He runs the length of the field to the end zone when another Seahawks grabs a fumble or intercepts a pass. Offensive players who score often have Witherspoon as the first guy off the sideline greeting him as he comes off the field.

And that’s just in practice.

That’s just the beginning of why he’s Macdonald’s favorite.

“I could go on for a long time,” the coach said Wednesday, three days before his and Witherspoon’s first NFL game in their positions.

“It starts with his passion for the game, and the process,” Macdonald said. “I think he loves his teammates. He loves his team. There’s a selflessness behind what he does, as well. He’s an incredible competitor, and that comes out with the standard that he expects from himself and the rest of the team.

“So he’s a great, fun-loving personality. But at the end of the day, he expects us to play great football. And his actions back that up. That’s contagious, how he plays.”

Macdonald has instilled in his defense all 11 players swarming to plays. Williams says on game, and practice, film coaches stop the frame to count how many helmets are in it at and near the ball carrier. It seems nine guys is the standard on any given play.

That has often eliminated yards after catches, which changes games. Instead of a first down on a short completion on third down, an immediate tackle makes it fourth down and a punt.

In the Seahawks’ last game, Jan. 3 for the NFC West title at San Francisco, 49ers running and catching All-Pro running back had six receptions. But those went for just 34 yards, and only one first down. Seahawks including do-it-all rookie Nick Emmanwori swarmed McCaffrey after he caught passes, and on his eight rushes for a mere 23 yards.

It was the fewest yards rushing for McCaffrey in seven years, since the end of his second NFL season with Carolina. It was his fewest yards receiving on that many catches in a game since Christmas 2023 against the Ravens’ defense — coached by Macdonald.

“Get all 11 guys and make it feel like 12 to the football,” Witherspoon said. “We swarm the football. We play with relentless energy and swag. We’ve just got to go out there and have each other’s back.

“We promised ourselves back in OTAs (in the spring) that this is what we’re going to do, and this is who we’re going to be. And we’ve just held ourselves to that standard."

The head coach credits Witherspoon for all that.

“You can’t turn on our tape on and watch 21 play, and having any inkling or idea that’s it’s not OK to play with your hair on fire, a thousand miles per hour, every play,” Macdonald said.

“And he’s incredibly smart, too. He gets it. He sees things. He’s reactive. He’s inquisitive. He cares about it. He wants to learn.

“I mean, sounds like a guy you want to coach.”

A new Devon Witherspoon

The arrival of Emmanwori to make plays all over the defense has basically turned Macdonald’s Seahawks from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 with a dynamic strong-side “SAM” linebacker misleadingly listed as safety. Emmanwori has become what Witherspoon had been the previous two seasons: the extra defensive back playing inside on a defense that plays five- and six-defensive back schemes as much as any team in the league.

Emmanwori’s excellence inside has moved Witherspoon outside as more of a truer cornerback. It’s more what he was in college at Illinois.

Devon Witherspoon, always joking, always chirping on the field, is already bringing rookie safety Nick Emmanwori into the club just 5 practices into OTAs.

Another sign how the 2nd-round pick is already squarely in the middle of the #Seahawks defense, and its plans. pic.twitter.com/VleQ3Ozm3p

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) June 5, 2025

Now Macdonald said Witherspoon has become elite as a cover and press cornerback outside, too.

Now Seattle has two of the best nickel, slot cornerbacks in the league on the field at the same time. Forget that Witherspoon has just one interception and half a sack in 12 games, missing five because of an early-season knee injury. And that his tackles have gone from 98 in 2024 to 72 this season.

“We’ve been freed up more with ‘Spoon’s’ development at corner,” outside, Macdonald said of his ability to call more defensive plays. “I know he doesn’t have a lot of stats at corner, but he’s playing great football out there. So you don’t feel like the competitive advantage of where he’s playing is that different.

“Two great players, two great players in the slot.”

The Seahawks’ Napoleon credits his “nerdy” head coach for maximizing Witherspoon’s and Emmanwori’s talents.

“He puts us in a position to make plays,” Witherspoon said. “You can’t ask for nothing more than that."