RENTON — In a season filled with unexpected accolades, Tariq Woolen’s greatest individual accomplishment came during a week when he might have learned his biggest lesson as an NFL player.
Woolen, the 153rd pick in the 2022 draft regarded as a project, capped a meteoric rise of a rookie NFL season on Wednesday when he was named to the NFC Pro Bowl roster at cornerback.
He was one of four Seahawks to make it, joining safety Quandre Diggs, quarterback Geno Smith and kicker Jason Myers.
All four will attend the Pro Bowl Games in Las Vegas on Feb. 5, with the traditional football game scrapped in favor of a flag football game and skills challenges.
Six other Seahawks were named as alternates: linebacker Jordyn Books, special teamer Nick Bellore, outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, punter Michael Dickson and receivers Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.
It is the third selection for Diggs and third in a row, while it is the second for Myers, who made 26 of 27 field goals and tied a team record with six of 50 or longer. Myers also made it in 2018 with the New York Jets.
It is the first Pro Bowl for Smith and Woolen, who are among the unlikeliest of players in the league to make it, if for drastically different reasons.
For Smith, the Pro Bowl honor validates what he said he knew all along — that he could be a star in the NFL if given another chance. That chance came in March when the Seahawks traded Russell Wilson and asked Smith to fill his monstrous shoes after seven consecutive years as a backup for four different teams.
At the age of 32, Smith not only filled in for Wilson but has helped give the Seahawks one of the best offenses in the NFL, leading the league in completion percentage at 71.4% and ranking second in QB rating at 105.3, throwing for 26 touchdowns against just eight interceptions.
The Pro Bowl nod earns Smith a $500,000 bonus as part of an incentive clause in his contract (for throwing for more than 20 touchdowns and making the Pro Bowl).
But if Smith’s ascension to Pro Bowl status is among the more unexpected events of this NFL season, Woolen’s may be even more so.
The rookie out of the University of Texas-San Antonio was regarded mostly as a project with intriguing potential, having played just two seasons and 18 games at cornerback in college.
Woolen proved a quicker study than anyone anticipated, taking over the starting spot at right corner early in training camp and never letting it go.
Until last Thursday, Woolen’s rookie season had mostly been an unexpected joy ride. He has already picked off six passes to tie for the NFL lead and set a Seahawks record for a rookie.
Thursday against the 49ers, he suffered his first significant lesson in the harsh reality that can be the NFL — and further impressed his coaches with how he handled it.
On the second play of the second half, Woolen made maybe the biggest mistake of his young career, leading to a 54-yard TD pass from Brock Purdy to George Kittle that gave the 49ers a 21-3 lead in an eventual 21-13 San Francisco win.
On the play, Woolen was responsible for covering the deep third of the right side of the field. He took the bait on an underneath route, leaving the right side wide open for an easy score.
“It was just such an easy, fundamental play to play properly,’’ said coach Pete Carroll, who called the TD “a gimme’’ for the 49ers.
If that sounds harsh, it may be because Carroll said those words after he had talked with Woolen, who made it clear that Woolen was as hard on himself for that play as anyone else could be.
“He feels like he let guys down,’’ Carroll said.
Sitting at his locker Wednesday, Woolen calmly described the play to reporters and his reaction afterward.
“There were a couple of reasons why I was hard on myself,’’ he said. “Stuff like that happens, but that hadn’t really happened to me all year except for probably the first preseason game (when he gave up an early TD against the Steelers in Pittsburgh). And more so because the team sees me as a player that can go out there and make plays. And I know that in order for our team to actually go out there and play well I play a role in actually doing my job, and if I don’t do my job it can cost us. And it cost us in that game, giving up points.’’
Woolen said the lesson to be learned from the play is simple.
“Just trust my eyes and just stick to the techniques that I practice in practice,’’ he said. “Because I know that as a game goes through you may try something new or you just want to make a play so bad that you just end up losing focus on the main goal — and that’s to just do your job.’’
Seahawks coaches could probably not have scripted those answers better.
And as a new workweek began, Seahawks coaches said the task had shifted to making sure Woolen wasn’t being too hard on himself.
“When you always coach a guy and you have to address it, it’s critical for his teammates to see it,’’ defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt said. “But when you know the guys are as hard on themselves as anybody else can be, you’ve got to be smart as a coach to make sure you don’t beat a guy down either. You have to help build him up because there is another game that you have to be ready to go play. As long as guys are aware of that, you teach them a lesson and you have to go ahead and move forward. Hopefully, it is something that they learn from going on for years.’’
Hurtt revealed he told Woolen a story about one of his old teammates from his playing days at the University of Miami — Pro Football Hall of Famer Ed Reed.
“We came in together at the University of Miami, and we had an experience in a game like that against Penn State and after that play, Ed Reed was never the same guy,’’ Hurtt said. “He became the Ed Reed that everybody now knows. I think it will be a great turning point for a young player if it is handled the right way, (which) I believe Tariq will.”
A few hours before he got the news, Woolen said getting named to the Pro Bowl “would mean a lot, to be honest’’ because “a lot of people didn’t expect me to be here.’’
He said if the good news arrived, as it indeed did a few hours later, he planned to call his mother and other family members to let them share in it, too.
“It just feels good to be able to accomplish all that within a short span of my career playing the cornerback position,’’ Woolen said. “It builds confidence going forward, and also it shows that I can go out here and play in this league.’’