Tyler Lockett almost opted out of this COVID-19 season. Now he’s making Seahawks history
The second-greatest game for a receiver in Seahawks history almost didn’t happen.
Tyler Lockett almost didn’t play this season.
This summer, the NFL and its players’ union were negotiating safeguards on how to proceed with training camp and the 2020 season amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many debated the wisdom of playing the most massing, ultra-contact, no-social-distancing sport of them all with COVID-19 spreading throughout the country.
Lockett was debating, too. With himself.
The veteran wide receiver was back in Texas contemplating whether to do what Seahawks teammate Chance Warmack and 65 other players across the NFL did: opt out of this season.
Lockett, 28, was concerned with the unknown of how contracting COVID-19 might relate to doctors at the 2015 NFL scouting combine finding he had a heart abnormality. His aorta, the body’s largest artery that usually originates from the left ventricle of the heart, is on Lockett’s right side instead.
His condition proved to be benign and he was cleared to continue playing football. But at the time the doctor diagnosed it five years ago, months before the Seahawks drafted him, Lockett was worried about his playing future.
This offseason, he was worried about how the coronavirus could affect his heart abnormality.
So why did he ultimately decide to play this season during the pandemic?
“I realized I was probably more safe being out here then probably being in Texas,” Lockett said.
Geography matters
Texas has been one of the states with the most cases of COVID-19 through the spring, summer and into fall.
Way back in May, with the pandemic’s first wave still in many parts of the country, Seahawks safety Quandre Diggs said from his home in Austin that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was reopening the state’s restaurants, bars and social activities too soon.
“I think our governor as opened up the state a little too fast,” Diggs said five months ago. “I think that we have (a) rise in cases. ... You know what I mean, it’s not like it’s getting better.
“I think we are just doing a little too much right now.”
Five months later, as of Thursday, Texas led the nation in new cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days with 41,185. That’s according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Instead of opting out and remaining in Texas, Lockett came to Washington and reported to Seahawks training camp.
Wise move.
As of Thursday, Texas had more than twice the rate of cases per 100,000 residents on average over the last seven days as did Washington (23.4 to 10.1).
Seattle and Washington’s COVID-19 case rates have leveled off, relative to most of the country, since becoming the nation’s first hot spot early last spring.
And Lockett has been making Seahawks history.
“Tyler’s so special,” quarterback Russell Wilson said Thursday. “He’s been amazing.
“His game the other night was unbelievable.”
Largent-like
Sunday night in the Seahawks’ overtime loss at Arizona, Lockett had a game surpassed only by wide receiver Steve Largent in franchise history.
Largent, of course, in enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Lockett had a team record-tying 15 catches in 20 targets from Wilson against the Cardinals Sunday night, for 200 yards and three touchdowns.
The only receiving day better in Seahawks history? Largent’s 15 catches, 261 yards and three scores on Oct. 18, 1987, in Pontiac, Michigan, to lead Seattle to a runaway win over the Detroit Lions.
Good thing Lockett didn’t opt out. Last weekend he became the eighth player in franchise history and second wide receiver to have two games of three or more touchdowns in a season.
Lockett enters Sunday’s NFC West game against the San Francisco 49ers (4-3) at CenturyLink Field leading the league in touchdown catches (seven) and the Seahawks in receptions (45). He needs 78 yards to pass Joey Galloway for sixth on Seattle’s all-time receiving yards list. Galloway had 4,458 yards.
Lockett has 34 touchdowns receiving in his six-year career. He needs two more touchdown catches to tie Daryl Turner for fifth all-time in Seahawks history. Three more touchdowns grabs and Lockett will tie Galloway for fourth all-time.
His 25 touchdown catches since 2018 are the most in NFL in that time. He’s caught one more than Kansas City’s Tyreek Hill.
Lockett says it’s also a good thing he plays for the Seahawks.
He believes they are one of the more thorough and players-first teams in the league.
He finds those are traits mighty handy during our pandemic.
“I think I just felt more safe because you know, being here, Seattle, things have gone way more smoothly,” Lockett said.
“I wasn’t really worried so much about our team. I was worried about a lot of the other teams. Because I know that the way that the Seahawks kind of operate they try to be as safe as possible, trying to put us in the best positions that we possibly can be in to be able to overcome what’s going on right now in the world.”
Lockett’s worry about other teams is legitimate.
The New York Giants had all but four members of their offensive line sent home Thursday because of at least one positive case of COVID-19. The Los Angeles Chargers learned of a positive case Wednesday night.
The Tennessee Titans had 24 cases ending a couple weeks ago and the New England Patriots had two, causing games to be postponed. Many other teams have had players test positive in the last weeks and months, including many on the Atlanta Falcons’ defensive line and the Las Vegas Raiders’ offensive line.
Remarkably, the Seahawks have had zero positive cases. That’s among the thousands of daily tests, including at road hotels and before games, since testing began July 28 on reporting day for training camp.
Lockett believes Pete Carroll being the league’s oldest coach at age 69 and drilling the importance of limiting players’ outside contacts and even discouraging them from eating at restaurants are reasons why the Seahawks have been COVID-free. So far, anyway.
These testing results are the ultimate knock-on-wood statistic. And they get re-tested every, single day.
“It just says that I know that they’re going to do everything that they possibly could,’ Lockett said. “Especially with us having coaches who were older, I knew that they wouldn’t want to be in the situation where they could possibly get it or bring it to their families. And so it just made me comfortable with being able to come out here. ...
“Once you make a decision to go with it, it’s hard to question it and go back. I mean, you have those moments when you see what’s happening in college football, you have those moments when you see every now and then certain people test positive in the NFL. But for the most part, you can only control what you can control.
“And so I just try to focus on what’s in front of me and focus on where I’m at—and just really tell myself if I was to get it, I did the best I could to prevent it.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 7:18 AM.
