Doug Baldwin lied to himself early in his career.
Discovering the truth helped the eventual two-time Pro Bowler unlock a substantial NFL career. At a Seattle diner this offseason, he spoke honestly about lessons learned with his protege, Terry McLaurin.
As the two devoured breakfast, Baldwin discovered the man across the table with the raw tools coveted by teams possessed the vulnerability required to break free on and off the field.
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“When I started telling (Terry) these concepts. It all made sense to him,” Baldwin said. “He felt like he innately knew exactly what I was talking about.”
Speed kills. That’s a decades-old axiom. For the swift receivers who possess it, like the Washington Football Team’s top target, it’s a gift from the gods. Teams covet such threatening playmakers. With one, big-gain potential looms with every snap.
Yet simply pushing the pace without purpose isn’t a winning formula. In Baldwin’s mind, control is the goal. That art of patience — and NBA star Allen Iverson’s crossover dribble — helped a player who went undrafted from Stanford in 2011 turn into one of the most prolific and precise receivers despite lacking that coveted size or speed.
“I think early on in my career, I had unreasonable expectations of where I wanted to go. At my tallest, I’m 5-11. Right at my heaviest, I’m 195 (pounds). I wasn’t going to be Calvin Johnson,” said Baldwin, who also lacked McLaurin’s 4.34-second speed in the 40-yard dash. “I’m not that kind of receiver, even though in my mind, I want it to be.”
Based on his first two seasons, McLaurin’s ego could easily have run wild. He’s one of two Washington players ever to reach 2,000 receiving yards over his first two seasons. McLaurin finished last season with 87 receptions for 1,118 yards, the youngest player in franchise history to reach those marks. Mature beyond his years, he also transformed into a postgame-speech kind of team leader less than two seasons into his career.
Yet the rising star humbly flew across the country to seek wisdom from a Super Bowl-winning wide receiver known for his route-running prowess and sharp mind.
That told Baldwin, whose last season with the Seahawks was in 2018, something about the person seated across from him. Yes, McLaurin possessed the needed raw physical tools, but also the clarity the two-time Pro Bowl selection lacked early in his productive eight-year career.
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“Really breaking down those walls of ego and pride and really becoming vulnerable with yourself. Then you are able to see who you really are as an athlete, what you are as a person,” Baldwin said. “Then you can see what your strengths and your weaknesses are, honestly. And, quite honestly, that takes a long time.”
The immediate connection allowed the two to quickly shift from small talk to in-depth football chatter. They later moved to a field for technique work, the kind film mavens will break down once McLaurin’s new skills go public, particularly his releases off the line of scrimmage. That remains an emphasis from McLaurin in training camp, one that requires technique, footwork and patience.
“It’s not just a ‘reach a destination and now you can check that off the list’ type of skill set,” said Baldwin, who spoke Thursday on a conference call. “It’s something you have to work on continuously. What I found personally is that it’s really hard to turn it off. So, you have to learn that level of patience in everything that you do in order to incorporate it into your craft — and vice versa. If you do it really well in your craft, it’ll spill over into other aspects of your life.”
McLaurin’s early-career shine brought extra attention not just from fans but from opponents. As he prepped for his third season, McLaurin pondered how to regain the edge.
“I’m two years into the league. There’s a lot of film out on me now in this system,” McLaurin said as Washington opened training camp last week in Richmond, Va. “Guys will be able to kind of try to match my splits on what routes I’m going to run. But if I could win out (on) the line, that definitely gives me an advantage.”
He sought Baldwin for advice through their shared advisor, Buddy Baker. The Indianapolis-based agent repeatedly praised McLaurin as a worker and a person to his veteran client. Baldwin’s spin on football training veers toward unconventional — “I don’t do things in a traditional way.” He let McLaurin know if they met up, “we’re going to do things my way.” Upon hooking up with McLaurin and watching his game tape, Baldwin’s impression of the 25-year-old matched the hype.
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“He’s passionate about winning,” said Baldwin, who finished his career with 493 receptions and 49 touchdowns. “You see it, obviously, in the way that he trains and the way that he seeks out support and help. Also, the way that he shows up on the football field. … (Other receivers) taught me the language and the things to look at and helped me expedite my progress and so I just wanted to relay that back to him, since he asked for it.”
During an interview with the NFL Network, Baldwin described himself as a “cross-sport pollinated athlete” because he incorporated basketball footwork into his receiving.
“Basketball is my first love,” Baldwin said in the TV interview, “and my absolute favorite (player) of all time is Allen Iverson.”
The Georgetown and 76ers star dazzled fans and foes with his legendary crossover dribble. “He could manipulate his body into making you think he was going one way and actually going another way,” Baldwin said. “It was a thing of beauty. It was art. I wanted to translate that to football.”
When breaking off the line, Baldwin incorporated a skip to gather information on the cornerback’s intentions. The patience could indicate the defender planned to jam him inside and that Baldwin needed to establish outside leverage. “In my mind, if I handle my business at the line of scrimmage, I’ll get the separation I need,” Baldwin told NFL Network.
Doug Baldwin (Joe Nicholson / USA Today)Baldwin’s confidence in his movement stems from understanding his strengths and weaknesses. Based on what his body was capable of doing, Baldwin determined he had exactly three releases off the line. After working with McLaurin, he believes Washington’s leader has “more than three releases in his package,” he said.
Moves alone won’t win the battle at the line against a standout cornerback, the kind McLaurin will face weekly. The chess match is knowing which release to use in any given situation. That means studying the opponent, not simply the coverage.
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“I’m watching that human being. I’m trying to figure out who that is as a person,” said Baldwin, who caught a touchdown pass in each of his two Super Bowl appearances with Seattle.
The matchup against New England in 2015 meant facing standout cornerback Darrelle Revis.
“I studied him not as a football player, but as a man,” Baldwin said. “I wanted to know who he was as a man. Because in situations when the emotional part of the game starts to get in, you have to know how to attack a person. You have to know how to set a person up.”
The approach requires ample homework on the foe — and oneself.
“If you don’t know who you are as a human, how can you evaluate somebody else on that level and from that perspective?” Baldwin said. “Terry has that. He wants to do that. … (He’s) far more advanced (from) where I was in my career. So those are the aspects we’ve talked about. He knew a lot of them, but I don’t know if he’s ever had the language around it. And so being able to just talk to him, it was like I felt like I was talking to myself a little bit. But my older self, who was much wiser than what I was at that age.”
McLaurin’s coaches and teammates recognized Baldwin’s influence throughout the offseason program and training camp.
“He’s a lot more deliberate in the way he practices, and by that I mean he’s intentional,” wide receivers coach Drew Terrell said. “He’s thinking about the things that we tell him he’s needed to work on, and you can see him applying them on a day-to-day basis.”
One point of emphasis from the coaches involved running versus free access — in other words, for McLaurin to dictate terms of the engagement with the defensive back by “getting off the line of scrimmage with speed and efficiency,” Terrell said. “He’s really done a good job of taking those coaching points and the things that we’re telling him from meetings and implementing it into practice.”
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There’s agreement from those tasked with attempting to cover McLaurin’s deep adventures and precise routes in practice — and often failing.
“His releases are definitely better,” said cornerback William Jackson III, who defended McLaurin last season while on the Bengals. “Way better since I played him last year. He’s doing sudden moves, he gives you a little something at the line so he’s making it harder for DBs.”
Though he never lacked it entering the league, there’s a newfound level of overt confidence in McLaurin that comes out when he engages in trash talk during practice or runs routes. Yet whether catching a lofted bomb from quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick or a dart in the end zone, McLaurin remains in control.
“I’m trying to dictate more,” McLaurin said on the first day of camp. “Being a fast guy, you could kind of be in a rush sometimes. … You kind of got to switch up your releases a little bit. You gotta do some things differently.”
Baldwin kept detailed notes on corners he faced during his career — a tip he learned from former teammate Sidney Rice — and then studied them before a rematch to determine what’s changed. He said that’s already part of McLaurin’s preparation.
Watching McLaurin’s future game film won’t crack the code because of the mental angle. Besides, Baldwin was hesitant to reveal specifics about their work together. “Those are still my trade secrets,” said Baldwin, who had a league-high 14 touchdown catches in 2015.
Just as Baldwin put his own spin on the lessons learned, McLaurin will as well. Though he’s hardly a grizzled veteran, McLaurin is an ideal player for any of Washington’s young wide receivers to emulate. Perhaps in time, he trademarks his own doctrine on what he’s learned. Based on football norms, Baldwin’s views and his own resolve, perhaps his adage goes something like this: Speed kills, patience is life and honesty above all.
(Top photo of Terry McLaurin: Dean Hoffmeyer / Associated Press)
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