‘He’s just so special.’ Tyler Lockett on pace for career season with Seahawks
If this truly is Russell Wilson’s season to “cook” in the passing game — and his record-breaking 14 touchdown passes through three games indicate it might be — a few of the Seahawks’ waiting hands stand to benefit.
Tyler Lockett, Wilson’s most familiar, consistent and versatile receiver the past several seasons, has certainly thrived early with his quarterback slinging the ball often.
In Sunday’s win over Dallas, Lockett hauled in a career-high three touchdown catches, pushing his season total to four — tied for the NFL lead with Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans and Atlanta’s Calvin Ridley.
“He’s just so special,” Wilson said Thursday on a Zoom call with reporters. “He knows the game in and out. … He just keeps finding a way to get open. They can’t cover him. He’s just so good at everything he does.”
The connection between Wilson and Lockett isn’t new. Since his rookie season in 2015, Lockett has been one of his quarterback’s top targets, and has led the Seahawks each of the past two seasons in receiving. Last season, Lockett exceeded 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in his career. The season before, Wilson’s passer rating when targeting Lockett was perfect.
The success early on this season is an extension of what the two have established during recent years, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said this week. It’s tough to imagine an even better finish for Lockett than what he’s produced the past two seasons.
Yet, as the Seahawks’ passing game has flourished these three weeks, Lockett’s numbers have soared. He’s on pace to eclipse his single-season career highs in receiving yards (1,057 last season) and touchdowns (10 in 2018) by quite a large margin.
He’s been Wilson’s top target again early, pulling down 24 of his 29 targets for 259 yards and the four touchdowns. His 24 catches rank tied for fourth in the league. His yardage is also a top-10 mark.
“He’s so quick and so fast,” Wilson said. “He’s just so decisive. He makes the right play every time.”
But, there’s far more than the athleticism that has contributed to Lockett’s consistency his six seasons in the league — his football instincts, Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said.
“It is off the charts,” Schottenheimer. “You take an extremely quick and dynamic athlete with great speed and you touch him and you give him the gift of football intelligence, and he’s a hard matchup.
“I think he’s playing at a high level.”
Seahawks second-year receiver DK Metcalf, who leads the team with 297 receiving yards and is just behind Lockett with three touchdowns, took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon to note how Lockett’s impressive production often goes overlooked.
“Tyler Lockett is the MOST UNDERRATED WR in the NFL,” Metcalf wrote.
When asked about the tweet Thursday before practice, Lockett joked, “I’m going to get on DK when I leave.”
But, if he is underrated and underappreciated around the league, that’s certainly not the case among his coaches and teammates in Seattle.
“I think if he’s not one of the top 10 or 15 receivers in the NFL, then I might need to study some more tape, because I think he is,” Schottenheimer said.
With Lockett as a key contributor, the Seahawks have a top-five passing offense entering Sunday’s game in Miami.
He and Metcalf — who has a team-leading 297 receiving yards and three touchdowns — are both on pace to surpass 1,000 yards this season.
Their quarterback holds the league’s highest passer rating (139). Wilson noted Thursday the offense is “definitely in the zone” and wants to stay locked in.
“The way we’re able to get everybody the ball, just depending on who the defense tries to take away, we have a whole bunch of playmakers who can be able to make plays at any moment,” Lockett said. “It doesn’t matter if they stop the run or if they stop the pass, we have a lot of other guys. … Whatever they throw at us, we’re going to figure out how to capitalize on it.”
Lockett, and Seattle’s other pass catchers, who have accounted for more than 70% of the team’s offensive yardage this season, certainly have.
“We feed off of one another — whether it’s a catch or whether it’s somebody making a block,” Lockett said. We’re literally trying to put the fear into people that we play against, and we’re not only doing that by playing with a mindset of, ‘You can’t stop me,’ but we’re also having fun when we get on the sidelines.”
Seattle’s receiving corps in particular has a chemistry that allows them to succeed both in practice and on game days.
“It’s an amazing vibe,” he said. “I think when you walk into the room, you can see that you have a bunch of people that love to have fun — and we’ll have fun at doing anything. We go out here and walk through, we’re going to find a way to have fun. If we’re in practice, we’re going to find a way to have fun. If we’re in meetings, we’re going to find a way to have fun.
“That’s literally all we do. And that’s what makes this game so much better is that you have a group of guys that you love playing with who are going to ball out and have fun just like you.”
