Riq Woolen has been here before.
But not with these stakes.
Woolen was a Pro Bowl cornerback for the Seahawks as a rookie. He got in 2023. It happened again last year, for the start of a game.
Now one game, one loss that largely came down on him, into the final season of his contract, Woolen starting job appears in jeopardy. His status is in doubt for Seattle’s game against Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers (1-0) Sunday in Pittsburgh.
In the Seahawks’ opening loss to San Francisco last weekend Woolen stopped running as the 49ers’ Ricky Pearsall zoomed beyond him for a 40-yard catch in the fourth quarter of a tie game. That Niners drive ended when on third down the 6-foot-4 1/8-inch Woolen had 6-4, third-string tight end Jake Tonges cut in front of him and jump over him to catch what became San Francisco’s winning touchdown pass.
Meanwhile, third cornerback Josh Jobe played brilliantly. He made three big plays in the second half alone, including a leaping interception of Brock Purdy.
Coach Mike Macdonald praised Jobe after the game into this week.
“I thought he played a tremendous football game. He played physical, played smart, played disciplined, and finished his plays right,” Macdonald said Monday. “I thought he played a great game.”
The head coach was asked Monday: Could Jobe take playing time away from Woolen at starting right outside cornerback opposite two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Witherspoon in base defense?
“At corner on either side,” Macdonald said.
“You go out and you produce, why would we not play you?”
Wednesday, Macdonald was asked if Woolen is going to start Sunday in Pittsburgh.
“We’ll see,” Macdonald said.
It’s easy to forget in Seattle’s 17-13 loss, the team’s seventh in eight meetings against their rival 49ers, but Woolen raced from the middle of the end zone to near the pylon to save a touchdown earlier in the fourth quarter. He knocked away a pass from open Pearsall to deny San Francisco a touchdown and force a tying field goal instead.
Plus, he was right with Pearsall on the game-changing, 40-yard catch — until Purdy’s pass was arriving.
“It’s like I did 98% on a quiz, and I just didn’t put my name on it, and I got 2% taken off because I didn’t finish the test,” Woolen said at his locker before practice Wednesday, “or didn’t pay attention to detail. Like, something small about putting my name on the test.”
He said of Tonges snatching what appeared to be a jump ball into the end zone over him for the decisive points: “I’ve got to attack the ball. That’s pretty much it.”
And of the 40-yard catch on which he stopped as Pearsall kept running past him: “Yeah, I could have played the ball better. I ran the route for him. I knew what type of route it was, and I’ve just got to execute and attack the ball and not lose track of the ball.”
Has Macdonald, with the game plan to face Rodgers and the Steelers in four days before game two, given Woolen any indication his role will be different in Pittsburgh?
“I don’t know,” he said.
“I mean, he’s the head man. So whatever he says goes. I ain’t gonna go against it.
“But other than that, I could just continue to be Riq, and just continue to be a great player that I have been doing.”
Options at cornerback
Nick Emmanwori’s injury, and Witherspoon’s availability for Sunday, factor into whether Woolen starts and how much he plays in Pittsburgh. And beyond. Witherspoon was not practicing nor in pads on a helmet at the start of practice open to the media Wednesday. He stood on the side watching. Macdonald made no mention of an injury to Witherspoon following the 49ers game, or before practice Wednesday.
The head coach did say Wednesday it will be through the end of this week before the Seahawks decide if Emmanwori’s high-ankle sprain warrants the rookie safety going on injured reserve. Such a move would mean he’d miss at least four weeks.
The 220-pound Emmanwori was to be the primary, fifth defensive back against San Francisco. Macdonald planned for him to be a bigger defender against the 49ers’ running game, plus All-Pro tight end George Kittle catching and running after catches. But Emmanwori got hurt tackling Christian McCaffrey on the fourth play of his NFL career, when teammate DeMarcus Lawrence fell across the back of his leg.
After Emmanwori left, Macdonald initially tried smaller safety Ty Okada as the fifth defensive back against the 49ers. That failed. San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan and Purdy targeted Okada for a first-down completion then an easy touchdown pass to Kittle on the drive Emmanwori got hurt.
Macdonald then put Jobe in as the fifth cornerback. Jobe played outside and Witherspoon moved inside to nickel, slot corner, the alignment Seattle used last season before the team drafted Emmanwori.
Jobe excelled. He played 80% of the snaps, in a game plan he wasn’t initially part of.
Jobe began last season on Seattle’s practice squad, after Philadelphia had cut him in the summer of 2024. He ended up playing 60% of the Seahawks’ defensive snaps as the fifth cornerback in nickel, first as a practice-squad elevation and eventually signed to the 53-man roster.
Wednesday, while saying “we’ll see” about Woolen’s status, the head coach said this about Jobe, who had Seahawks defensive backs coach Karl Scott as he college DBs coach at Alabama: “I love telling the story, because this time last year he wasn’t playing for us. Just a guy that has come in and really bought into the process. The details matter for him. And he does it every day.
“There’s a consistency there that you respect. He’s earned these opportunities, which is really cool,” Macdonald said.
“If you were the coach of a team, wouldn’t you want it to work like that? Guys coming in earning their opportunities, growing as players and as people? That’s what he’s done.” That sounds like a guy who could be starting Sunday in Pittsburgh.
The Seahawks also have Derion Kendrick, whom they signed to the active roster two weeks ago. He was a starting cornerback for the Los Angeles Rams for 12 games in 2023, and for six games as a rookie in 2022. He missed all last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. The Rams released their sixth-round pick three years ago from Georgia at the end of this preseason.
Kendrick played seven snaps in the opener on special teams. Macdonald said Wednesday: “D.K.’s just kind of soaking it up right now. But great competitor, great spirit. Great energy about him.”
Seattle has one of its former starting cornerbacks on its practice squad. The team elevated Shaquill Griffin, now 30, to the game-day roster last weekend. Griffin has made 82 regular-season starts in his nine NFL seasons since the Seahawks drafted him in the third round in 2017.
Riq Woolen has been here before
Woolen is the product, and project, of a previous regime.
Then-Seahawks coach Pete Carroll drafted the converted wide receiver two years out of his position switch at the University of Texas-El Paso. Carroll, a former safety and a defensive backs coach early in his long career, loved Woolen’s height, his long arms and his 4.26-second 40-yard dash at the NFL scouting combine in March 2022.
Though Woolen had little experience at the position, Carroll made him a starter from week one of his rookie season. The entire league tested him. Woolen excelled. He tied for the NFL lead with six interceptions. He became the first Seahawks defensive player to make the Pro Bowl as a rookie since linebacker Lofa Tatupu in 2005, the franchise’s first Super Bowl season. Woolen was the first rookie in 22 years to intercept six passes and recover three fumbles in a season.
Carroll’s experiment wasn’t just working, it was flourishing.
Then in 2023 opponents began targeting Woolen with wide running plays at the slight cornerback. His tackling continued to be a problem, and he had coverage mistakes. Carroll benched him later that season. The head coach called out Woolen and safety Jamal Adams publicly that December for not playing 49ers pass plays as coached.
Woolen responded later that month, December 2023, with a game-clinching hit on the final play to preserve the Seahawks’ three-point win at Tennessee.
Carroll called it a “career hit” by Woolen.
Carroll also invoked when talking about Woolen’s big play at Tennessee his primary his coaching example, UCLA basketball legend John Wooden, who once said: “The bench is the coach’s best friend.”
Macdonald, in his first season replacing Carroll last December, also used that bench with Woolen. He sat his cornerback for the opening series of a late-season game against Minnesota that the Seahawks had to win to stay in playoff contention (they lost). The official explanation was Woolen had violated a team rule. It came a week after he had one of his worst games, in a home loss to Green Bay.
Woolen responded that time, too. He reclaimed his starting role through the end of last season, into this one.
But this is different. He is in the final year of his rookie contract. Macdonald and general manager John Schneider must decide based upon the next 16 games of this season whether to retain their four-year starter at one of the sport’s most difficult and important positions for 2026 and beyond.
The clock is ticking on Woolen’s next. That adds weight to his next opportunity.
Whenever and in whatever form that may be.
“All I can do is be a great teammate and a great player,” Woolen said.
“And that’s it.”