Tyler Lockett back on the field for Seahawks after hand surgery. But can he catch? Play?
Tyler Lockett is back on the field running for the Seahawks.
But that’s not what he needs to do to make a remarkable return from surgery.
“It’s his hand,” coach Pete Carroll said Monday.
That was as Lockett was running on the indoor practice field at team headquarters in Renton, during Carroll’s video news conference with Seattle-area media.
It was seven days after Lockett had surgery in Los Angeles to repair the spiral fracture in the first metacarpal below the index finger on his left hand. He got hurt in Seattle’s loss to San Francisco Dec. 15. The team’s co-captain and top wide receiver had been in Los Angeles since the surgery rehabilitating, missing the Seahawks’ loss at Kansas City on Christmas Eve. He re-joined the team Monday.
Could Lockett miss only the one game and play Sunday when Seattle (7-8) must beat the New York Jets (7-8) at Lumen Field to remain in contention for a playoff spot in the NFC?
“I don’t know that yet,” Carroll said.
“I know what he wants to do; he wants to play. So we’ll see.
“He needs to find out, is he comfortable being able to catch the football and hold onto it,” Carroll added. “He hasn’t been catching a lot of balls from Geno (Smith) in the last week, so it’s going to be a little bit different.
“He’s going to be in good shape. He’s going to be ready to run. He’ll be able to do everything. It’s just how he handles the football, and we won’t know that until we get to ... until Wednesday starts (with practice and) the process will be underway.”
Carroll reiterated from last week that the eighth-year veteran does not need to practice fully in the offense to know the game plan and play against the Jets.
“If anybody could go through the game plan in walk-throughs and all that kind of stuff ... because he won’t miss any of that. He can run around,” the coach said.
“The question will be, what it feels like to catch the football, and hang onto it. And I’m sure we are going to take all the time that we can. So we might not know that answer until way late in the week.
“But he’ll be ready to go otherwise, as far as the game plan.”
Without Lockett, DK Metcalf caught seven of nine targets by Smith for 81 yards in Seattle’s 24-10 loss at the Chiefs Saturday. The rest of the Seahawks’ wide receivers in Kansas City — Marquise Goodwin, Laquon Treadwell signed from the practice squad plus deep reserve Penny Hart — caught four of the 13 passes Smith threw to them.
The Seahawks were 2 for 14 converting third downs without Lockett, whose specialty is finding openings in coverage, catching passes in traffic and getting past the line to gain for first downs. The third-down numbers at Kansas City were the Seahawks’ fewest conversions with at least 10 attempts in a game this season.
“You can’t replace him,” Carroll said Monday of Lockett, again. “He’s too special. He’s too unique. ...
“We certainly missed him on third downs. He’s such a key guy. He and Geno are so hooked up that we missed him. He’s made a lot of crucial third-down conversions for us, under duress, late in the game, late in the downs, fourth downs, all kinds of stuff, that we would have loved to have had in that game.”
Smith and Goodwin appeared to be on different waves of thinking on a key interception in the end zone when it was a 17-3 game and the Seahawks were driving to a touchdown that would have gotten them back into the game at Kansas City in the fourth quarter. Goodwin stopped his route toward the sideline while Smith threw longer into the deep safety that was over the top of the receiver.
Smith took the blame for the interception instead of a score that would have brought Seattle to within 17-10.
“Marquise did what he was supposed to do. He felt the coverage and broke it to where he thinks he would be open,” Smith said. “I put it in the wrong spot, and gave the safety the chance to make that play.”
It’s a play on which one doesn’t often see Lockett and Smith get out of synch.
Goodwin (zero catches on four targets) played on after briefly leaving Saturday’s game with a wrist issue. He caught that diving onto it trying to catch a low throw from Smith on one of Seattle’s 12 failed third downs at Kansas City. The wrist injury was a recurrence of what’s been bothering the 32-year-old, ninth-year veteran for months.
Goodwin’s health is becoming more important to Seattle’s playoff chances, with Lockett’s status in doubt for the final two games the Seahawks must win.
“He’s got a couple things that he’s nursing, that’s been bothering him for some time,” Carroll said of Goodwin.
That indicates this will be another week Goodwin will have to manage pain to play.
“I would imagine he would have a good chance to do that,” Carroll said.
This story was originally published December 26, 2022 at 3:57 PM.
