'Lot of Moving Parts': Rayshawn Jenkins Details Seattle Seahawks' Versatile Defense

Already known for his positional flexibility, a new defense under Mike Macdonald has demanded Rayshawn Jenkins and his Seahawks teammates to take their versatility to another level.

Seattle Seahawks safety Rayshawn Jenkins listens to instruction from coaches prior to a drill at training camp. / Corbin Smith/Seahawks On SI

RENTON, Wash. - Now a wily eight-year NFL veteran, playing multiple positions isn't a foreign concept for Seattle Seahawks safety Rayshawn Jenkins, who has cut his teeth making an impact all over the field with a well-developed all-around skill set.

Since breaking into the league as a fourth-round pick for the Chargers back in 2017, according to Pro Football Focus charting, Jenkins has played nearly a 50/50 split between free safety and strong safety with close to 2,000 snaps in each alignment. After being used more in the box in his final season in Los Angeles, the Jaguars leaned more heavily into his flexibility the past three years, logging at least 250 snaps at free safety in each season.

But as he transitions into a new defense under first-time head coach Mike Macdonald, the architect behind the Ravens' top-ranked scoring unit from a year ago who has earned a reputation as a schematic wunderkind, Jenkins' adaptability has been pushed to a new limit in the Pacific Northwest.

"It's a lot of moving parts, so you really have to know not just your position, but maybe three or four other guys position as well," Jenkins said following Monday's first padded training camp practice.
"Because there may be tempo, there could be a shift or a motion or whatever it may be, and sometimes there's no communication because it happens that fast or that quick. We all have to be on the same wavelength or whatever you want to call it and we have to know not only our jobs but everybody else's jobs."

Dating back to the start of training camp, Jenkins has been seen everywhere from single-high free safety to two deep safety to big nickel in the slot to walking up to the line of scrimmage like a linebacker, filling a multitude of roles in Macdonald's complex system built around keeping offenses on their heels. At this point, he might as well learn to line up at nose tackle to put the cherry on top.

As Jenkins elaborated, he doesn't simply need to know his job at free or strong safety as a veteran leader in this defense. With communication being critical in a scheme requiring extensive checks at all three levels and players moving around pre-snap, he has to have a strong understanding of the responsibilities for his teammates around him knowing there's always a chance he could have to take on their role depending on the call.

The same challenges face Jenkins' new safety mates, as returning Pro Bowler Julian Love, fellow free agent signee K'Von Wallace, cornerback convert Coby Bryant, and Ty Okada have to be masters of the playbook beyond their normal position, which has made building chemistry in the secondary a bit more of a prolonged process with the offseason program and a week of training camp in the books.

"It's still a work in progress," Jenkins said. "It's me, Julian, K'Von back there, Coby, Ty, so we're always back there playing with each other and kind of getting a feel for each other's game and different plays. I may see one thing different from him and vice versa. Those are the plays we have to really just be able to communicate and get it around the board to everybody."

While Jenkins and his safety cohorts still have a ways to go learning a new defense and how each of them tick as players, however, he believes the reward at the end of the tunnel could be a special one.

For one, Jenkins doesn't have any doubts about everyone in the safety group having the prerequisite skills and football instincts to handle a heavier workload playing multiple positions. As he demonstrated in his first season with the Seahawks and previously with the Giants, Love can play either safety spot at a high level as well as in the slot and even played outside cornerback in the past. Wallace has been equally versatile, including playing over 300 snaps at both safety positions and more than 100 snaps in the slot with the Cardinals and Titans a year ago.

Away from those three players, Bryant previously played outside cornerback in college at Cincinnati and excelled in the slot as a rookie two years ago before transitioning full-time to safety this spring, while Okada has a history of playing multiple positions dating back to his time at Montana State and the recently re-signed Marquise Blair has previous NFL experience at safety and nickel corner as well.

Given the depth and talent in the secondary with cornerback Devon Witherspoon also being a Swiss army knife of sorts who can play inside and out, Macdonald could have the ability to unleash dynamic dime packages with six defensive backs or even play seven or eight at the same time in certain situations, something Jenkins believes Seattle has the pieces to "plug in" to do that effectively.

"Absolutely. That'd be fun to do, we've got the guys that are versatile enough to do those type of things," Jenkins said. "We've just got a bunch of guys, like Coby Bryant, who can come in and play safety and nickel for us, just different looks like that. I feel like that presents a matchup problem because now you get these smaller, faster guys on the field, but we're still strong enough to support the run game, so that's just my thought process. But we'll see how things go."

Secondly, Jenkins loves the talent Seattle has amassed at other levels of the defense with versatility also being prioritized along the defensive line as well as linebacker, allowing for far more multiplicity scheme-wise away from the secondary.

Up front, the Seahawks re-signed Leonard Williams to go with Jarran Reed and Dre'Mont Jones, giving the team a trifecta of position-flexible defenders who can move up and down the defensive line and thrive in different alignments. Making the group even more dynamic, first-round pick Byron Murphy II has been everywhere from nose tackle to defensive end in training camp, providing Macdonald with yet another weapon at his disposal in the trenches.

As for the linebacker spot, Jenkins has been impressed by what he's seen from newcomers Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker, who have rebounded nicely from injuries that kept them out of action for the entire offseason program. The two veterans each have prior experience at both off-ball spots and have excelled as pass rushers, opening up the playbook for blitzes and sim pressures alike.

Even with all of those components in place, Jenkins isn't about to make a prediction for where the Seahawks will finish statistically as a defense in terms of points or yardage allowed. But with Macdonald at the wheel and new pieces such as himself acclimating quickly with plenty of returning talent on that side of the ball, he's bullish on their chances for dramatic improvement if the group as a whole executes their assignments and taps in with the willingness to play multiple roles.

"I feel like we can be really good. We can be a dominant defense, especially since we have a defensive minded head coach, so he spends a lot of time with us and he makes sure we understand why he calls the calls that he makes and he makes sure we understand the situation. So if we can just do our part - because I know they're gonna do their part - we can do our part and come here everyday and just really embrace what he's trying to give us, we can we can be a really dominant defense. I don't want to put any numbers or stats just because you know how this league is, but we can be up there."