Receiver John Metchie III stopped his route with the intention of working back toward his quarterback — something he had done a million times — when his left anterior cruciate ligament tore. The timing was terrible, the consequences costly.
The non-contact injury occurred Dec. 4 in Alabama’s Southeastern Conference Championship Game win over Georgia. It knocked Metchie out of the game, deprived him of the chance to compete in the College Football Playoff, where the Crimson Tide lost to Georgia in the national championship, and prevented him from working out at the scouting combine or Alabama’s pro day in preparation for the NFL Draft that begins April 28.
Don’t cry for Metchie. He’s not.
“It’s not tough at all,” he said at the combine. “Injury is something I’ve played through. So it’s definitely not affecting me mentally or psychologically.”
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Alabama coach Nick Saban isn’t surprised Metchie isn’t cursing his luck.
“He’s got some dog in him. I mean, he’s a competitor,” Saban told The Chronicle-Telegram on Friday in a phone interview. “He’s a hard worker, but he’s well-grounded. A lot of these guys are so emotional about everything that they get things out of perspective pretty easy, and he’s not that way.”
Metchie (5-foot-11, 187 pounds) expects to be back on the field with no restrictions in June and doesn’t think the torn ACL will affect when he gets drafted, which is expected to be in the second or third round April 29. The Browns need a receiver or two, hold pick Nos. 44 and 78 and could team Metchie with No. 1 wideout Amari Cooper, an Alabama alumnus who was acquired in a trade from the Cowboys last month.
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“It’s definitely something they all ask about,” Metchie said of NFL teams and his knee, “but my recovery’s going really well, all the doctors say it’s going really well, so I shouldn’t have any issues there at all.”
He’s rehabbing with Alabama receiver Jameson Williams, who tore an ACL in the national title game loss to Georgia but is still expected to be a first-round pick.
Saban doesn’t hand out praise lightly, even with his best players. He practically gushed about Metchie, who was second-team All-SEC as a junior in 2021.
“He’s smart, he’s bright, he can learn,” Saban said. “Guy’s been productive here, he’s a good player. He’s a hard worker. He’s never an issue. He’s never a problem.
“You’ll like him in your organization. You’ll like him on your team. He’s a really good, good, good guy.”
Metchie isn’t a stranger to injury and said the experience helped him deal with the torn ACL. He played through shin splints and an ankle injury in 2020 before having surgeries after the season.
“He has probably been hurt a little bit more than normal, but I don’t see that being a problem,” Saban said. “He’s never been one of these guys that he has to be 100 percent to go. There’s a lot of college kids that think they gotta be 100 percent to go play and in the NFL, hell, there ain’t very many guys that are 100 percent and they gotta play. So you gotta kinda learn how to do that, but he can do that. The guy’s really, really tough. I mean, that’s not a problem.”
After not playing much as a freshman, Metchie broke through in 2020 when he stepped into a starting role after 2021 first-round pick Jaylen Waddle got hurt and caught 55 passes for 916 yards and six touchdowns. He followed with 96 catches for 1,142 yards and eight touchdowns in 2021 before missing the final two games after the ACL.
Metchie, who played in the slot and outside, dropped 15 passes in his career, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler, who ranks him the 11th receiver in the draft. He’s a good route runner who consistently gets open, is a threat after the catch and tells NFL teams he would’ve clocked in the low 4.4s if he could’ve run the 40-yard dash at the combine.
“I think getting open is the key of being a receiver. Getting open, creating space and versatility,” Metchie said. “I think you can put me anywhere on the field and I can get open.”
Saban explained how Metchie does it.
“The guy’s not a burner, but I think he can drop his weight, get out of a break,” Saban said. “He’s pretty smart about how he goes about it. He’s got pretty good body quickness to be able to do that.”
Metchie, 21, sounds like a guy who fits what the Browns want, including his willingness to block. In coach Kevin Stefanski’s run-heavy system, the wideouts are needed to turn efficient carries into explosive plays.
“I think I’m the best blocking receiver in this class, for sure,” Metchie said. “It’s something we talk about in the room a lot, it’s our pride in not only playing with the ball but also playing just as well without the ball and having a big impact without the ball, as well.
“It’s part of football. It’s just pride in being a football player really.”
Saban said that’s the way it has to be.
“The college game has evolved into so many advantage throws, perimeter throws, smokes, bubbles, (stuff) like that,” he said. “A guy’s gotta be able to buy into doing that. You’re gonna catch some of them and the other guy needs to be blocking for you, and he’s gonna catch some of them and you need to be blocking for him. So you guys can both do each other a lot of good by blocking for each other.”
Metchie is an interesting prospect off the field, as well. He was born in Taiwan, grew up in Africa and moved to Canada before leaving to attend a boarding school in Maryland to pursue his football dream.
“I was really grateful for my mom,” he said. “She did a lot and sacrificed a lot for me and my brothers to get a good opportunity at life and just to get a chance at life, so eternally grateful for my mom.
“All the places I’ve lived, all the people I’ve been around is one of the biggest keys to who I am today.”
Saban attributes Metchie’s level-headed personality to the unique background.
“Because he’s had those experiences growing up, he’s had to adapt and adjust to things,” Saban said. “He can adjust. He’s not so emotional about every little thing that’s happened because he’s had some changes in his life.
“And this guy’s always been internally motivated. I mean, he’s always wanted to be good. It’s not about somebody else outside of him sort of motivating him, which a lot of these guys they’re more worried about what everybody else thinks of them than what they think, but he’s not like that. He wants to be good and he works hard at it. He’s intrinsically motivated.”
