Seahawks’ Tyler Lockett, Brian Schottenheimer go way back, and here’s why that relationship is paying off

Few can say they’ve had the same NFL coach their dad did.

Tyler Lockett can … but It’s nothing special, he said.

“Not really,” Lockett said. “I went to the same middle school as my dad and was probably coached by the same people my dad played with. Went to the same high school as my dad, went to the same college … I’m pretty much used to being around people my dad has been around.”

Such is life for Lockett.

The latest coach to work with both Tyler Lockett and his father, former NFL receiver Kevin Lockett, is Brian Schottenheimer, the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator who was once an assistant under his father, Marty Schottenheimer.

So, yeah, the Locketts and Schottenheimers go way back.

Back then Brian Schottenheimer was a quality control coach for the Chiefs in 1998, when Kevin Lockett was their slot receiver. They reunited with the Redskins in 2001 when Schottenheimer was their quarterbacks coach.

Tyler Lockett is thriving in Schottenheimer’s offense this season as the big-play dynamo in what has been a revived Seahawks running attack.

Lockett had two touchdown catches all of last season. He has six through seven games this year. Lockett had five catches of more than 20 yards last season. He has six this year.

Entering Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Lockett has 25 catches for 394 yards (15.8 yards per catch). So far the Seahawks have looked like geniuses for getting Lockett to sign that three-year, $31.8 million contract extension just before the season.

“Obviously, Tyler and I have a great relationship,” Schottenheimer said. “He’s an awesome young man, terrific player. I remember I was more of a ball boy at first and then I got into coaching with Kevin, his father. He was a terrific slot receiver.

“They remind me a lot of each other.”

Lockett said his father was giving him a scouting report on Schottenheimer during OTAs in the spring after the Seahawks had hired him to take over for Darrell Bevell.

But how much of Lockett’s big-play production is because of some family familiarity?

Very, very little. It’s far more a product of Lockett’s health now that he feels back to normal, finally, after breaking his leg in 2016. That still affected him much of last year.

“I barely would make it through practices last year,” Lockett said. “It’s hard to give someone an opportunity who can barely make it through practice, even though I was still finding ways to still look like myself and run around during games. It was just harder to put myself in a position to be able to help the team in an expanded role.

“I’m healthier, so I can go back to playing my game and how I get off the line and how I set people up to run routes, which I just couldn’t do last year.”

Lockett still had 555 receiving yards last season and entered this year with more total yards (adding all those return yards on kickoffs and punts to his receiving numbers) than any player in the NFL.

“He’s always, in our opinion, been a guy down the field who can make big plays,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “Never thought anything other than that. But after the year he was hurt he came back and he really had to just work his way through the season. He was not as hit best, even though he did a lot of good things and played really well for us late in the year.

“But he’s just so much more physically together now. He’s just at his best. And I think the years here and Schotty mixing things up right for him and all of that has worked out really well for him.”

There wasn’t much for Lockett to take away from his dad’s recollection on the Schottenheimers, especially since more of his experience was working with Marty Schottenheimer than Brian. But it was certainly more like the younger Lockett and Schottenheimer already knew each other, even though they hadn’t met.

“I just like talking to him and he’s really family oriented,” Lockett said. “It’s like a relationship we never had at one point in time was already founded from long ago. It’s something that you can continue to try to build on and make it whatever you can.”

But that’s also made it easier for Lockett to have no reservations about continuing what he he’s on his high school team in Tulsa, Oklahoma, or with Bill Snyder at Kansas State. Schottenheimer said Lockett frequently delivers organized, well-labeled plays he scribbles out on paper.

He’s not telling Schottenheimer how to do his new job, just giving his own insight … even if the formations are sometimes a little off.

“Sometimes the formations are a little askew, if you will,” Schottenheimer said. “And you’re kind of like, ‘What’s that?’

“But he’s always thinking the game. He loves it and I enjoy watching him interact with the other guys because he really does have good instincts, which shows you why he’s able to kind of feel the game and get open and make plays when Russ (Wilson) improvises.”

Wilson this week compared the Seahawks’ receivers to the Golden State Warriors in their ability to ride the hot hand any game. Lockett preferred to compare it to his hometown team.

“I’m an OKC Thunder fan, so that’s different,” Lockett said. “But I thought it was pretty cool and like he said, you never know whose time it’s going to be when you get out there. You just got to go out there and let the game come to you. We got to do our job and get open and let the other people get open, too. Whoever’s day it is, we’re going to ride it and hopefully ride it to a win.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2018 at 4:46 PM.