Devon Marquis Witherspoon (born December 11, 2000) is an American football cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Illinois, where he was named the 2022 Tatum–Woodson Defensive Back of the Year. Witherspoon was selected by the Seahawks fifth overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.
High school career
Devon Witherspoon attended Pine Forest High School in Pensacola, Florida. Initially concentrating his athletic abilities on basketball, Witherspoon did not begin playing football until his junior year of high school. As a senior in 2018, he was the Pensacola News Journal Defensive Player of the Year after recording 74 tackles, seven interceptions and two touchdowns. He committed to play college football at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
College career
Witherspoon was the only true freshman to start on defense for the Illinois Fighting Illini in 2019. He wound up playing in every game, making 33 tackles. As a sophomore in 2020, he recorded 33 tackles and two interceptions.
He played and started 10 games his junior year in 2021, finishing with 52 tackles and one sack. Witherspoon returned to Illinois his senior year in 2022, beginning the year as the Big Ten Conference leader in passes defended.
A supremely confident player, Witherspoon was regarded as the leading trash-talker on the Fighting Illini team during his tenure. When asked about the biggest talkers on the squad, offensive teammate Isaiah Williams joked that "Spoon is number one. Spoon is at one and then we go to like five."
"I gotta talk, it's just me. I can't live without doing it," Witherspoon acknowledged.
During his senior year Witherspoon was named one of twelve finalists for the Jim Thorpe Award, presented to the nation's top defensive back. He was selected as the 2022 Tatum–Woodson Defensive Back of the Year, an award given to the top defensive back in the Big Ten Conference, and was named a consensus All-American at the season's conclusion.
Professional career
Witherspoon was selected by the Seattle Seahawks fifth overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. The Seahawks obtained this draft pick as part of the blockbuster trade that sent Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos in the previous offseason.
In Week 4 of the 2023 season, Witherspoon caught his first career interception from quarterback Daniel Jones in a game against the New York Giants. He converted it into a pick-six, as he returned it 97 yards for a touchdown. This was the second-longest pick-six in team history, the longest being a difference of 1 yard more (98 yards) by Bobby Wagner against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 13 of the 2018 season. Witherspoon became the third rookie in NFL history to record 2.0+ sacks and a pick-six in a single game, along with Todd Shell and Andy Katzenmoyer. However, this marked the first time in NFL history for a player to have 2.0+ sacks and a 95+ yard touchdown in a single game since sacks became an official stat in 1982. For this performance, Witherspoon won NFC Defensive Player of the Week.