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Does anyone outside pro football fans & media think the Seahawks' DK Metcalf could run at the Olympic Trials?


It all started Monday with a tweet from USA Track & Field that DK Metcalf of the Seattle Seahawks actually replied to.

In case you've been under a rock the last few days, the tweet from USA Track & Field refers to Sunday's game between the Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals, where Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson threw a pass intended for running back Chris Carson from outside the 2 yard line, only to have former University of Washington and Bellevue HS defensive back Budda Baker intercept the ball.

Baker, a former Washington state high school sprint champion, was well on his was to running the ball back 97 yards the other way for an apparent Cardinals' touchdown, when he was run down and tackled by Metcalf, who was once one of the state of Mississippi's top hurdlers at Oxford HS, at the Seattle 8 yard line.

Meanwhile, several members of the sports media, including NBC's Jac Collinsworth (the son of Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth, and a great receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1980s), were enamored with Metcalf's tackle of Baker, to the point where the younger Collinsworth tweeted, "DK Metcalf is the fastest man alive."


He tried to back up the claim by quoting a tweet from the NFL Next Gen Stats where DK Metcalf (left/photo by Paul Merca) ran 22.64 miles per hour to catch Baker, the second fastest clocking by an NFL player this season.

Numerous football fans gave their takes on social media, stating that DK Metcalf could potentially make the 2021 US Olympic team in the sprints and/or relay.

Sports fans, here's a dose of reality--football speed does not translate to track speed.

To enter the US Olympic Trials, which will be contested June 18th to June 27th at Historic Hayward Field in Eugene, the qualifying time in the 100 meters is 10.05, while the qualifying time in the 200 is 20.24.

According to the World Athletics site, eleven Americans ran 10.05 or faster after the qualifying period opened on May 1st, 2019. In the truncated 2020 season, six Americans ran 10.05 or faster, including two runners not expected to contest the 100 in the Trials, Michael Norman (a 200/400 specialist), and Rai Benjamin (a 400 meter hurdler).

In the 200, ten Americans ran 20.24 or faster in 2019, and three dipped under that mark this year.

USA Track & Field posts on its website that the field size in both the 100 and 200 will consist of a field of 32 athletes and 3 rounds of competition, so they can fill the field with the fastest runners closest to the qualifying standards.

While I've watched my share of track and field meets and football games in person over the years, I turned to two people who actually competed in both track & field and football at the highest levels to get their takes on DK Metcalf's run.

I talked to 1987 NCAA long jump champion and 1988 US Olympic Trials finalist Eric Metcalf, who played 13 seasons as a running back/kick returner in the National Football League, most notably with the Cleveland Browns, and three-time NCAA 400 meter hurdles champion and 2011 USA world championships team member Jeshua Anderson, who played three seasons of football as a wide receiver at Washington State.

Both Eric and Jeshua agreed that DK Metcalf's (no relation to Eric) effort to catch and tackle Baker was a great athletic play. They were both impressed that he didn't give up on the play, even though Baker had roughly a seven yard head start.

For DK to think about trying to qualify for the US Olympic Trials (he ran 14.89 in the 110 hurdles at Oxford HS in Mississippi, 41.84 in the 300 hurdles, and 46-5/14.14m in the triple jump, and did not compete in track at Ole Miss, good high school marks but not elite), he would need to lose about 15-20 pounds, make some changes in his weight training routing (Eric explained that the weight training for football wide receivers and running backs are generally to maintain bulk in order to absorb hits, as opposed to the explosive weight training needed for sprinters), and most importantly, learn proper running mechanics, a process that can take years.

Assuming the Seahawks go deep into the playoffs, Metcalf would probably need a couple of weeks of rest and recovery from a long football season. He would then have to master a lot of sprint-specific drills, and work on starts, as well as do track specific interval work.

Anderson noted that some of the running work that receivers do, particularly the short bursts, stopping, cutting, and turning, go against what track and field sprinters do. The bursts that wide receivers, running backs and defensive backs run are on the average, 15-25 yards per play.

"The fundamental difference between track speed and football speed is the ability to be fast and change directions," said Eric Metcalf, who was one of the league's most electric punt and kickoff returners, in addition to his ability as a running back and a receiver out of the backfield.

DK Metcalf would probably need two or three races at 100 meters against quality competition before he'd be in a position to challenge the 10.05 qualifying standard. The challenge (besides finding competition) also lies in what the Seahawks would do, particularly with organized team activities (OTAs) and a team mini-camp, both of which are usually held in early May and early June, not to mention the unofficial bonding and workout activities that quarterback Russell Wilson does with his running back/wide receiver group.

If DK Metcalf were somehow be able to be one of the nation's top 32 sprinters by the time the Olympic Trials rolls around in June, he would have to race twice to get to the finals. While 100 or 200 meters doesn't seem as far as say, 40 yards (the standard measurement distance used in football), its the ability to maintain top speed between 50-90 meters in a 100 that determines how fast you run.

To put things in perspective, DK Metcalf was measured as averaging 22.64 miles per hour in full football uniform, including helmet and pads when he ran down Budda Baker (a 10.75/21.68 performer in the 100 & 200 at Bellevue HS, where he won state in both events in 2014) with a running start.

When Jamaica's Usain Bolt set the world record of 9.58 for 100 meters at the 2009 world championships in Berlin, Bolt hit a maximum of 27.78 miles per hour between the 60 and 80 meter marks of the race, and his average speed for the 100 meters was 23.35 miles per hour.

Bottom line--if he were to try and qualify for the Olympic Trials in the 100 or 200 while focusing on both track specific training and training to prepare for the 2021 NFL season, it would not work. 

What folks who cover the National Football League fail to understand is that very few of the fastest men in the league have world class speed, and that those people who cover football tend to use the term "world class" very loosely.

I would go and ask those people what their definition of "world class" is.  In my mind, 10.00 and 20.10 in the 100 and 200 is world class.

The only men in the National Football League that I'd even consider having world class speed are Marquise Goodwin of the Philadelphia Eagles (a 2012 US Olympian in the long jump), and Tyreek Hill of the Kansas City Chiefs, who was fifth in the NCAA indoor 200 meters in 2014 for Oklahoma State.

I'll leave this post by sharing a conversation that my good friend and NBC Sports track & field analyst Ato Boldon had with Willie Gault, who won a Super Bowl ring as a wide receiver with the Chicago Bears, and a world championships gold medal in the 4 x 100 relay in 1983.

Given the evidence presented, the chances of DK Metcalf even running in the 2021 US Olympic Trials, let alone being in position to make the finals aren't good.

The effort DK Metcalf made to save a touchdown should be celebrated, and the conversation about DK Metcalf gives track and field and pro football a lot of attention, but let's keep it in perspective. The speed was not world class.

NOTE: TFRRS, World Athletics, and Athletic.net contributed to this report.

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