Christmas pain two Seahawks seasons ago has become the best gift of Tyler Lockett’s life
What seemed at the time to be a Christmas curse two years ago has become a life-changing gift for Tyler Lockett.
On Christmas Eve 2016 the Seahawks’ wide receiver suffered a broken leg. Horrified teammates Doug Baldwin and Russell Wilson prayed over him on the field. Lockett spent his Christmas Day in a hospital bed in Seattle. His family was with him — not that he could tell. He was in a sleepy fog caused by pain-killing medication. At about the time Santa was coming down chimneys across the country, Lockett was in surgery to fix his broken tibia and fibula.
“I don’t remember Christmas,” he said months later, rubbing his chin. “I opened probably one present, and I was halfway asleep off those Oxys. ...I mean, I didn’t get to experience nothin’. I opened one present. Don’t even know what it is.”
He knows his gift now.
Sunday night when Lockett and the Seahawks (8-6) play against the Kansas City Chiefs (11-3) and try again to clinch a playoff berth, it will be two days short of two years that Lockett’s leg snapped and his life changed.
For the far better.
Lockett says now his scary injury is the reason his career has taken off this year
Last year he returned to playing, but at less than full health. He compensated and persevered. He caught 45 passes with two touchdowns in 16 games as Seattle missed the postseason.
This year, he’s fully healthy. And now fully compensated. The Seahawks signed him to three-year, $31.8 million contract extension with $20 million guaranteed. The 26-year-old Lockett says that money, the big deal after a rookie contract that every NFL player covets, has changed his life.
“This is something that we all dream of as kids, being able to get to this position and being to know that our family is set and our life is set,” Lockett said in August when he signed his new deal.
Since then, he’s been rewarding his rewarders.
With lead receiver Doug Baldwin slowed most of the season by knee and groin injuries, Lockett has become Russell Wilson’s most prolific receiver and touchdown maker. His next reception will set his career high for a season, 52. He set a new season high for touchdown catches with his seventh one, on Nov. 11 against the Rams. He’s added two more since. His nine TD grabs tie him for fifth-most in the NFL.
And the Seahawks have a 95-percent chance of returning to the postseason for the sixth time in seven years.
Lockett and Wilson have forged an unspoken understanding of improvisational timing on the many plays the quarterback extends outside the pocket.
Before the game at Carolina last month Lockett broke off his route long during Wilson’s scramble instead of the usual run back to the QB in need. Lockett used the move during what for most is a throw-away walk-through practice on a Friday. Two days later, in the final minute of the game against the Panthers, Wilson extended a play and knew Lockett would break long instead of come back. He was wide open to catch Wilson’s decisive heave. Their 43-yard connection is why Sebastian Janikowski won that game with a field goal on the final play.
“He’s so disciplined as a player that he does things exactly the way you practice it, which really lends to helping the quarterback,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s really precise on the way he runs his routes. ...It helps the quarterback’s efficiency because he knows exactly where he’s going to be.
“Not to mention also in the scramble situations, too, he resorts to the right choice all of the time, too, and gives himself to the quarterback in a great way. He’s a tremendous performer and he does it how he practices and you can really count on him. I think that’s probably the number-one thing that leads to the efficiency that’s been showing up.”
And he’s still dangerous with a sterling reputation across the league as kickoff and punt returner. This week Lockett became an alternate to play in his second Pro Bowl as a kick returner. His first was for his rookie season of 2015, months after Seattle traded up to draft the four-time All-American at Kansas State in the third round.
He said he had a feeling—actually, he heard God telling him—he was likely to get hurt in that game against the Cardinals on Dec. 24, 2016.
“I don’t want to get into spiritual type stuff, but I felt like God told me something was going to happen,” he said this past week. “And when I went out there it wasn’t a surprise. So I was ready for it.”
He says the broken leg not only made him a better player, it’s the reason he and his children and grandchildren, he notes, are set financially for life.
“That was the best thing that happened to me, because it took me places where I never would’ve gone had everything happened to me the way I wanted it to happen.” Lockett said.
“So, regardless of how people think about it or how they go about it, I can’t stand up here now and you all ask what I’m doing this year that’s different without having to be able to talk about that, and say what I had to go through and what I had to experience. It was different from the surgery on wrist, it was different from the surgery on my shoulder. This was something that I had to learn how to be able to walk again, had to learn how to do all those things that got me here.
“I had to figure out different ways to win without using my same skill set. Now I have that skill set and my skill set again, so it makes it twice as hard for me to be able to guard. I had to learn how to work on my mental game on and off the field. There’s so many things that that injury did that allowed me to be able to take my game to a whole another level, and for that, I’m thankful for it.”
The introspective Lockett said his broken leg, the doubt and his long recovery that spanned two years also had a benefit in his personal life.
“It also removed the people who I thought was there for me who (weren’t), and it brought people who I didn’t think was going to be a part of my life closer,” he said. “All it did was a wake-up call. And it opened up my eyes.
“Like I said, I’m standing here today thankful for things like that.”
Lockett and Baldwin are among the only players in the NFL that have dropped a total of one pass each in the last two seasons combined. That’s supreme efficiency in an offense that demands it in the passing game. Seattle runs more and throws less than any other team in the league.
“Well, Doug and Tyler, they’re as good as it gets in the NFL.” Wilson said. “Their ability to catch the football—I don’t remember a day that they’ve dropped one just working with them and practicing with them every day and throwing in the offseasons, and obviously in games, too. These guys are special in that way.
“I love playing with those two. They can make every play. They’re quick as can be. There’s nothing that they can’t do. It’s an honor to be their quarterback and to play with them.”
Appreciation is absolutely something Lockett can relate to. Easily.
The broken leg two Christmases ago ensures that.
“Obviously, people say they wish it never happened,” Lockett said. “But for me, like, look how my life has turned out. Look how it’s turning out. Like, all of those things work together for the good.
“We just can’t see it until a year or two later.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2018 at 7:35 AM.
