SEATTLE — It doesn't take much to make Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf look good.
But there's someone among us who makes him look just a little bit better.
19-year-old Niko Carste is a sophomore at UW, and it's safe to say he never expected to be in a situation quite like this.
"If you consider YouTube a university, then that would be where I was a graduate of," he said.
Carste finds himself in this position in the most Gen Z way possible.
"Just all self-taught, watching tutorials all the time, always listening to something before I go to bed," he added.
Carste's working relationship with DK goes back to the summer of 2020, when team facilities were closed for COVID. Niko was in a position to shoot his shot.
"I was invited to a little private workout one day and he was there," he said. "I went up to him and I shook his hand. I took some photos of him there and after I sent him a message on Instagram and I said, 'Hey I got these photos of you.'"
"It was dope," Metcalf said. "I was like, 'No. You made this? How old are you?' He said, '16.'"
"And then we just started texting back and forth about making some more videos and stuff. I was absolutely shocked that he wanted work from me," Carste said.
The next offseason, the content partnership turned into a friendship.
"I got a text from DK and he said, 'You want to come live with me down in Arizona?'" Carste said.
Niko's mom wasn't too sure.
"Well my first reaction was absolutely not," Barbara Carste said.
Her rationale was logical. She didn't want her 17-year-old living with someone she'd never met.
"I can't blame her at all because to her it's just some random stranger," Niko said.
Barbara finally approved of the idea after a zoom call and dinner.
"Ever since that dinner that night, she's my biggest fan, biggest supporter," Metcalf said.
Niko has now spent two seasons documenting DK's every move. He's like the HBO show "Hard Knocks," but a one-man band.
As a live content correspondent for the NFL during Seahawks home games, his work is featured regularly on the NFL social channels.
As an employee of DK for road games, Niko's work is featured weekly on Metcalf's Instagram.
"I really just let him take the reins and do pretty much everything he wants," Metcalf said.
Metcalf is the only Seahawk with a personal photographer and one of the few in the NFL.
He said he got the original idea from Russell Wilson, and that other Seahawks players like running back Ken Walker III have expressed interest in a "Niko of their own."
Metcalf's goal is to turn memories into media.
"I want to have a documentary about myself and about my life and I have to have somebody around to capture all those moments," he said.
"In 10, 11, 12 years, we can come back to it and say we have all this footage captured of his early years," Carste said.
Some of that footage goes back to that trip to Arizona in 2021, and includes never-before-seen video of Metcalf training for the Olympic Trials.
Metcalf said there could be more of that come 2024.
"Y'all just going to have to wait and see what type of footage is on Niko's hard drive and Niko's camera," Metcalf said.