‘Blessed’ Tyler Lockett wants to retire with Seahawks, who intend to move him around at WR
Tyler Lockett knows he’s fortunate. Beyond the NFL norm.
“Blessed,” even.
He just signed his third contract with the Seahawks. It guarantees him $37 million. That’s more then three times the guaranteed money Seattle’s record-setting wide receiver received in his second Seahawks contract, in 2018. He said then that deal set him and his family financially for life.
Now, he’s triply set, in a league where the average career length is barely three seasons.
Lockett turns 29 in September. He will be playing his seventh NFL season in 2021. All have been with the Seahawks. They selected him in the third round of the 2015 draft out of Kansas State.
He became an All-Pro and Pro Bowl kick returner for them as a rookie. That set him on his way to becoming the trusted target for Russell Wilson outside and in the slot, on all downs in all spots on the field, the last six years.
“It’s truly a blessing,” Lockett said of his third contract, during an online Zoom call Tuesday.
“It’s truly an amazing accomplishment.”
Being signed through his 33rd birthday had Lockett saying Tuesday he wants to retire “as a Seattle Seahawk.”
“Who wouldn’t want to finish their career with a team that loves you as much as you love them?” Lockett said.
He’s on his way — with what he says is a new, varied role.
Two weeks ago, the Seahawks were staring at Lockett costing them $14.95 million against the tight, 2021 salary cap, which has dropped $16 million this year from last because of the coronavirus pandemic. Lockett’s scheduled cap charge was untenable for Seattle, even for the man who broke Doug Baldwin’s and Bobby Engram’s team record for a season with 100 catches in 2020.
So the Seahawks gave Lockett new contract at a lower 2021 cost than originally scheduled. They signed him to a new, four-year deal worth $69.2 million. It keeps him under contract with Seattle through 2025.
Wilson, Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright, Pete Carroll and Seahawks coaches who’ve been around a minute call their supposedly too-small receiver “No E.” That was to differentiate Lockett and veteran receiver Ricardo Lockette, with an “e,” in Lockett’s first seasons with Seattle.
“No E” now has lots of $, and well beyond this year. Lockett’s previous, three-year, $31.8 million extension included $11 million fully guaranteed when he signed it in 2018.
His cap number for 2021 is now down to $7 million. That’s why Seahawks general manager John Schneider and salary-cap executive Matt Thomas got the deal done deal now, in March, in the first weeks of free agency.
Lockett began his NFL and Seahawks career primarily an outside receiver. That was with Baldwin entrenched inside as Wilson’s trusted slot receiver, particularly on third downs.
Brian Schottenheimer replaced Darrell Bevell as Seattle’s offensive coordinator and play caller for the 2018-20 seasons. With Baldwin retired, Schottenheimer moved Lockett inside to replace him as Wilson’s slot receiver. Seattle drafted DK Metcalf in 2019. Metcalf immediately starred as a physical freak and mismatch against smaller cornerbacks outside.
Carroll fired Schottenheimer in January. That was because of a frustrating 2020 season in which Lockett and Wilson set franchise passing records but the offense faltered late in the year. Seattle failed to respond effectively to defense’s changing to more coverages with two safeties deep instead of one, to take away Lockett’s and Metcalf’s deep passing game.
Schottenheimer had Wilson continuing to throw deep anyway. Seattle won the NFC West with a 12-4 record yet lost in the first round of the playoffs when the Rams did what the Giants and Washington and others did late last season: stymie the predictable offense.
Lockett said the lesson the Seahawks’ offense learned from 2020 is to “take what a defense is giving you,” and not just forcing what they want to do, regardless of how teams are playing them.
“We had to truly learn what it meant to adjust,” Lockett said, “whereas in the first half (of the 2020 season) we didn’t have to.”
That, Lockett says, is where Shane Waldron comes in — from being the Rams’ varied, versatile passing game coordinator under a more diverse, adaptable offense with Los Angeles.
Lockett said already this offseason—which Seahawks players have told the NFL players’ union they intend to remain conducting remotely because of the pandemic—he’s learning Waldron intends to move him around the offense. Lockett expects to be outside in some situations and formations, inside in the slot in others. Same, he says, is coming for Metcalf in 2021.
“I’m getting the chance to move around. That’s the beauty of it,” Lockett said.
“I would love to move around more.”
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 2:01 PM.
