Seahawks safety McCray excited to face former team in exhibition

Published 7:00 pm Friday, August 12, 2016

RENTON — Kelcie McCray is headed back to the stadium where he used to play. However, don’t consider it a homecoming. The Seattle Seahawks safety has found a new home.

The Seahawks take the field for the first time when they face the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday in their preseason opener. When they do, McCray will be lining up on the opposite side of the ball from where he was only one year ago.

“I’m excited, man,” McCray said. “I still have a lot of friends who play there, so I’m excited to go in there and ball out.”

McCray, who spent the 2014 season with the Chiefs, figures to get his fair share of playing time when the teams kick off at 1:30 p.m. at Arrowhead Stadium. Strong safety Kam Chancellor has missed recent practices because of a minor groin issue, which will likely limit his participation Saturday. McCray, who has seen snaps with both of Seattle’s first and second defensive units during training camp, will probably absorb most of Chancellor’s workload.

“I’m enjoying it, I’m having fun, and I’m trying to win a spot out here,” McCray said.

And it’s an indication of what coming to Seattle has meant for him.

It was nearly a year ago when the Seahawks acquired McCray from Kansas City in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2016 draft. The deal came just before Week 1 as Seattle sought depth at safety with Chancellor extending his holdout into the regular season.

Once Chancellor returned in Week 3 many thought McCray would become just another anonymous name at the end of Seattle’s roster. But McCray proved to be no mere stop-gap. The 6-foot-2, 202-pounder first distinguished himself on special teams, becoming one of Seattle’s top coverage men on kickoffs. Then when Chancellor missed the final three games of the regular season because of a tailbone injury, McCray stepped in and started at strong safety. The Seahawks’ defense hardly missed a beat, going 2-1 and allowing an average of just 14 points per contest. McCray finished with 12 solo tackles and nine assists in the three games.

“He’s solid as a rock,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said of McCray. “He’s a really good football player and we have no problem with him coming in as the third safety at either spot. He’s a very accountable guy, does everything right. He is a fantastic special teams player, one of our leading special teams players. Yeah, Kelcie is a really nice player and we are very lucky to have him.”

The opportunity to play defense was a new sensation for McCray. Originally an undrafted free agent out of Arkansas State in 2012, McCray had stints with Miami and Tampa Bay before landing with the Chiefs in 2014. McCray appeared in all 16 games for Kansas City that season, but almost exclusively on special teams.

Therefore, McCray relished the opportunity Seattle gave him to show what he can do on defense.

“It was really good, going in and playing when Kam went down,” McCray said. “The guys helped me out a lot. It just added to the experience of knowing the defense.

“One thing I’m thankful for with Seattle is they actually gave me a chance to come in here and get on the field,” McCray added. “I didn’t see a lot of defensive work two years ago in Kansas City, so I’m definitely seen more as a defensive player here.”

A big reason why he gets his chances on defense is because of his ability to play both the strong and free safety positions. When McCray was originally acquired he was seen more as a free safety. But he’s already shown he can play strong safety, too.

“It’s tough, man,” McCray said about maintaining a grip on both positions. “You’ve got to train your mind to separate each one of them, and the hardest thing is going back and forth. One play I’m in at strong safety, and two plays later I’m in at free safety, so I have to go through both calls in my head, then figure out which position I’m playing. So there’s a lot of mental work that needs to get done there.”

The strong and free safeties have substantially different duties, with the strong safety typically playing closer to the line of scrimmage and having more duties in stopping the run, while the free safety tends to play center field and be the last line of defense against the pass. But so far McCray has been up to the challenge of mastering both safety positions.

“It does give us flexibility,” Carroll said. “Where that fits in, I don’t know yet, but we are definitely in good shape with him. He’s taking all the reps when Kam was out of here, really we didn’t skip a beat in terms of the calls and all that, which is great.”

McCray hasn’t severed all his ties with Kansas City just yet. He said he still remains in contact with five or six members of the Chiefs, texting regularly with safety Ron Parker and running back Charcandrick West.

But he has no doubts about what the trade to the Seahawks meant for him.

“I’m super happy here,” McCray said. “I’ve never been in a place like this. The way they run their organization here, the players, the team, I’ve never experienced anything like this and I’m super excited to be here.”

For more on the Seattle sports scene, check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/tag/seattle-sidelines, or follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.