Longtime Seahawk DK Metcalf downplays facing them in 1st home game with Steelers

Bemused by the multiple attempts to elicit a change of tone, DK Metcalf finally had enough. Smiling, he playfully mocked the reporters gathered around him.

“Y’all are gonna make it a big deal,” Metcalf said of facing his former team, “but I’m not.”

Try as they collectively might via several queries, the collective media could not compel Metcalf to expand on his emotions related to facing the Seattle Seahawks.

That’s the team with which he played his first six NFL seasons, and it’s also the team that dealt him to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a second-round pick in March.

It just so happens that Metcalf’s first home game for his new team will be against his old team. The Steelers host the Seahawks at 1 p.m. Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.

Speaking after practice Wednesday at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, Metcalf said he feels “no extra juice” this week in anticipation of seeing so many familiar faces going against him Sunday.

“It’s just another team on the schedule that just so happens to be playing the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Metcalf said.

How does Metcalf keep his reunion from not carrying any extra significance to him this week?

“Uh, just knowing that it isn’t,” the talented wide receiver said. “Knowing that it isn’t anything more than another football game and that we’ve got to go out there and do everything that we can to try to win.

“It’s just another football game,” Metcalf said moments later. “I prepare for it like any other football game, because after this it’s you’ve got to prepare for the next opponent.”

Throughout his eight minutes with reporters Wednesday, Metcalf complimented several of his former teammates, former Seattle coach Pete Carroll and current Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald.

On the other side of the country Wednesday, the heir to the title of No. 1 wide receiver for the Seahawks, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, called Metcalf “a great guy, a friend.”

“You know can you know always talk to him for advice,” said Smith-Njigba, who played two seasons with Metcalf. “Yeah, that’s my guy.”

In his debut with the Steelers on Sunday, Metcalf had four receptions for 83 yards in a 34-32 win at the New York Jets. He was on the field for all but three of the Steelers’ 56 offensive snaps.

Seattle, meanwhile, opened with a 17-13 home loss to the rival San Francisco 49ers.

“I know they’re good DBs in their own right,” Metcalf said of the Seahawks. “I’ve got a lot of respect for them just from being over there. But business is business.”