Rookie Coby Bryant’s role expands in Seahawks’ defense. How will they use him vs. 49ers?

Tariq Woolen gets all the attention.

Coby Bryant gets all the roles.

The Seahawks’ debuting cornerbacks have been two of the six rookies who have started and contributed mightily to Seattle’s unexpected rise into the NFC playoffs.

Woolen is a Pro Bowl corner outside. His wondrous season has Woolen as a candidate with New York Jets’ star Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner for NFL rookie of the year.

Woolen has had one job: stick with outside receivers in man and zone coverage, while coming up to help when he can in run support.

Bryant’s job? Everything.

Bryant — yes, his parents in Cleveland named him 24 years ago this March after the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant— used to be like Woolen, an outside cornerback. Until August. That’s when coach Pete Carroll made him the Seahawks’ fifth, nickel defensive back inside.

Bryant has slot wide receivers. He’s covered tight ends. He’s covered running backs in pass routes out of the backfield. He’s filled gaps in running lanes, like a linebacker. He’s lined up like one sometimes, off the edge of the formation a yard or two off the line of scrimmage.

To learn all those new roles, Bryant has had more coaches than most NFL rookies have games played.

All season Carroll, a former defensive back, has been employing himself plus a mini-platoon of assistants to teach Bryant the finer points of coverage, tackling, angles, run fits and all else a nickel must do against modern NFL offenses. Assistant defensive backs coaches DeShawn Shead and Neiko Thorpe, former Seahawks defensive backs themselves, plus associate head coach Sean Desai, secondary coach Karl Scott and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt have been drilling Bryant all season. They are often among the last guys to leave the field following practices.

“Obviously, the biggest goal was to improve each week, to learn more and more. That’s with me working with Shead, Neiko, even Coach Scott after practices, every, single day. Just to learn something new each and every day, so I can improve — not just for myself but for the defense.”

It’s been a crash course, in between the 17 games Bryant has played.

Bryant was the Jim Thorpe Award winner last season as the University of Cincinnati’s starting cornerback outside opposite Gardner. Bryant had never played nickel position before August. That’s when Carroll moved him there, in the middle of the preseason. It was to get Woolen and Bryant on the field together with cornerback Michael Jackson. In first first weeks with Seattle Bryant beat out veteran slot nickel back Justin Coleman, whom the Seahawks had re-signed before this season, presumably to re-take that nickel job.

That was before the Seahawks drafted Bryant, in the fourth round.

Bryant has been at times indispensable at the new position, one of the defense’s most complicated and varied. He’s made nickel Seattle’s base defense.

Bryant has played two-thirds of Seattle’s snaps this season. He played 96% of defensive plays in the team’s win at the playoff-bound Los Angeles Chargers, in October. He played 91% of snaps last month in a win over the Rams. He was in for 86% of plays against Arizona, 84% last weekend against the Rams, 78% of them at Detroit, 75% of them in Seattle’s other game against the Cardinals and 72% against the Giants.

The Seahawks are 7-0 this season when Bryant plays at least 70% of defensive snaps. In October he became the first NFL player to force four fumbles in his first six NFL games, at least since the league began tracking the stat for individual players in 2000.

Role keeps growing

In recent games, Carroll and Hurtt have expanded Bryant’s role even more. They’ve had him blitzing on passing downs.

Last weekend against the Rams he got his second career sack. It was a second-effort play on which Bryant came back up field to tackle Baker Mayfield as the quarterback tried to get away.

“Yeah, we were able to do everything in the package now,” Carroll said this week. “We realized he’s coming into it. It’s just about trusting him that he’s been through enough experiences so that he could make the right choices and decisions.

“He’s got so much to do and there’s so much going on in that spot that it just takes awhile. He’ll continually get better at playing the nickel spot.”

No, this hasn’t come easily or quickly to Bryant. He says he only recently knew enough of all his other roles to take on new ones.

“Probably about four weeks ago. Four to five weeks ago,” he said Wednesday, laying on the floor in front of his locker before practice.

The biggest challenge the lifelong outside cornerback has had playing nickel?

Bryant answered that as quickly as he comes up onto ball carriers.

“Being physical,” he said. “Being outside, you are taking on blocks from receivers. Now I’m taking on blocks with the tight end, guards, tackles. So you’ve got to be physical, and use your hands. And also you can give them a little move...just making a play on the ball.

“That’s just who I am. Thankfully, they trust me enough in those situations to go make the plays.”

His biggest lesson he’s learned in playing nickel is also related to rushing defense. And it’s one he’s still learning: how to mesh with his defensive linemen and linebackers on the correct running lanes, depending on down, distance, offensive formation, defensive calls and offensive blocking schemes off the snap.

“Run fits,” he said, quickly and knowingly.

“Not a day in my life did I think I’d have to learn run fits, me being a corner. I enjoy it, though. It’s added more to my game. Not only that, but it’s just helping me understand the defense more, too.

“I’m actually still learning it myself, more and more.”

How to use Coby Bryant vs. 49ers?

Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt have a decision to make with how often to use Bryant against the 49ers Saturday.

In their first meeting with San Francisco this season, in week two, the Seahawks had Bryant on the field in as the fifth defensive back 66% of the time against starting quarterback Trey Lance then, after Lance got a season-ending injury early in that game, Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers countered by running the ball 45 times for 189 yards and routed Seattle, 27-7.

Last month in the rematch at Lumen Field, San Francisco rookie Brock Purdy was making his first road start, for the injured Garoppolo. Bryant played only 38% of Seattle’s defensive plays. It was his lowest total of the season (other than the opener versus Denver, when he wasn’t yet in the regular defensive rotation). That didn’t work, either. The Niners controlled the game with 170 yards rushing, took a 21-6 lead deep into the fourth quarter and won 21-13 to clinch the NFC West title.

For this third Seahawks-49ers game, Seattle has a much more complete defensive back in Bryant than he was even last month.

“Oh, definitely, I would definitely take that as a compliment,” Bryant said, chuckling. “That’s the goal.”

More Alexander Johnson?

Another option Seattle could use Saturday that it hasn’t deployed against the 49ers’ running game this season: Alexander Johnson.

The 6-foot-2, 255-pound middle linebacker came up from the practice squad to make his Seahawks debut last weekend in the team’s win over the Rams in the regular-season finale.

That was after Jordyn Brooks went on injured reserve needing surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

Johnson played in 16 of 61 plays against Los Angeles, spelling fill-in inside linebacker Tanner Muse. The guy the Seahawks are calling “Chief” made 34 starts over the 2019-21 seasons with Denver, in the Broncos’ 3-4 system of Vic Fangio that is similar to what Carroll and Hurtt changed the Seahawks to for this season.

“Liked him. ...We wanted to make sure we could keep Tanner involved in special teams and all that and get a chance to see Alexander,” Carroll said of Johnson. “He hasn’t played football in a long time but he’s a hard, tough, thick guy that did his part. I thought he did a nice job first time out.

“He’s played a lot of football, and it was part of the thinking with all that was at stake and Tanner starting his first game, really, and just thought it would be good to have that kind of experience and come of the bench.

“And it would be important again this week.”