Seahawks’ Tyler Lockett, how do you do it? And how much longer are you going to do it?
Two things belong to Tyler Lockett.
The hearts of Seahawks fans. And the southeast corner of his team’s home field.
The beloved wide receiver is in his ninth NFL season, all with Seattle. He enters Sunday’s game between the NFC West-leading Seahawks (5-2) and AFC North-leading Ravens (6-2) in Baltimore with 587 receptions and 59 touchdowns in his career, counting the postseason.
Many of his more astounding catches have come in the south end zone of Lumen Field. Specifically, they’ve been in the southeast corner of Seattle’s stadium. The latest was last weekend. Lockett was initially covered at the goal line on a play in the first quarter against the Cleveland Browns. As he’s done countless times, he broke off his route and glided, improvising, to open space mirroring quarterback Geno Smith’s scramble.
That space was deeper, to the back left corner of that south end zone. As Lockett moved there, Smith lofted a perfect pass, over and away from the only defender who could contest it. Lockett caught it for a 14-0 lead in Seattle’s 24-20 win.
“That little corner back there, we have to call it ‘Tyler’s Corner,’ because he’s caught so many touchdowns back there,” Smith said.
Lockett had a miraculous toe drag against the Rams for a touchdown on a Thursday night in 2019, in a neon-green uniform. A picture of that trick hangs in the hallway of the team facility, between the indoor practice field and the locker room.
That was in the southeast corner of Lumen Field, too.
“I’ve got a couple touchdowns over there in that corner of the end zone,” Lockett acknowledged Thursday. “But I’ve also had some bad moments over there, too.
“Like, when I broke my leg.”
That was on Christmas Eve 2016, when he broke his tibia and fibula at that south end zone in a game against Arizona. Teammates Doug Baldwin and Russell Wilson were bowed on the field, praying over Lockett. Worst Christmas ever.
Seven years later, he still plays with a metal plate in his leg.
But otherwise, that south end zone has been Lockett’s. He’s the 5-foot-10, (maybe) 182-pound king of that end in Seattle.
“I can’t wait,” offensive coordinator and play caller Shane Waldron said. “One day, in the way distant future there, when Tyler hangs ‘em up, I hope they have a bunch of footprints in that left corner of Lumen Field to represent all the amazing plays he’s made in that same spot over and over again.”
About that “when Tyler hangs ‘em up”...
Lockett thought he’d already be done
Lockett has a booming residential real estate business; he got his license in Washington and sold his first home before the 2022 season. He doesn’t need the money. He likes the challenge of the negotiation and the sale.
He’s into poetry and spoken word. He has taken a particular interest in the history, including race relations, in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He turned 31 last month. After breaking his family’s records at Kansas State, he’s earned more than $76 million from the Seahawks in his football career. He has two seasons and $33.8 million left on his contract, the $69 million extension he signed with Seattle in March 2021.
Has he set a goal for how long he’s going to play?
“I already passed it,” Lockett said.
What?
“It wasn’t a goal, but I wanted to play for eight years,” he said. “Then eight years ended (in January 2023) and I was like, ‘I can still play, but, dang, I’m 30!’
“At one point, the game is going to end for me — and it’s a matter of when it’s going to end — but I don’t want it to end too short to where I’m like, ‘Man, I could’ve kept playing.’ I can’t go back and play again, so I might as well just try to see how far I can take it, how far I want to keep on playing, and then let whatever happens, happens.”
So it’s not inconceivable these final two years after this season on his contract could be his final ones before the team co-captain decides to retire. The Seahawks have rookie first-round draft choice Jaxon Smith-Njigba and undrafted rookie Jake Bobo heavily contributing with key catches, runs and scores. DK Metcalf is still only 25.
Lockett’s already said, when he signed the current deal in 2021, he wants to retire with the Seahawks.
“When my financial lady asked me, ‘When do you want to retire?’ I said ‘30,’” he said. “It was like, ‘All right you’re 30.’
At this point this past offseason Lockett said to his financial advisor: “Ah, I’ll just keep on playing.”
He and the rest of the Seahawks are marveling over offensive tackle Jason Peters, who last weekend played in his 20th NFL season, making his Seahawks debut at age 41.
Can Lockett imagine playing until he’s Peters’ age, until 2032?
“Absolutely not,” Lockett said. “I will not be playing when I’m 40 years old, I can tell you that much.”
Lockett’s skill on scramble plays
He hasn’t been practicing much between games for the last month, because of nagging hamstring soreness. Yet he remains Smith’s and the Seahawks’ magician on Sundays.
“Tyler’s the best athlete I’ve ever seen on the planet,” Metcalf said. “He never does anything during the offseason or before practice or anything and just comes out. He may give you 100 yards, two touchdowns. May give you 300 yards, a touchdown. Or may just make a DB fall on the ground and make him look silly.”
His touchdown against the Browns was the latest example of Lockett being among the best of his generation at turning broken plays and quarterback scrambles into improvisational touchdowns.
“He’s done it his whole career. I think that’s something that he does that no one else can do,” Smith said. “He just finds those open spots, he knows exactly when to scramble, never too early and never too late.”
Waldron and receivers coach Sanjay Lal assign Lockett and the Seahawks pass catchers areas to run to on scramble plays, so Smith knows generally where to expect each receiver to go.
But Lockett brushes that off as something coaches have to do. Since Russell Wilson was his quarterback and Lockett was a rookie in the Pro Bowl in 2015, he’s been going where he feels and sees he needs to go, not where someone tells him to.
“There’s really not a lot of ways to coordinate it, but they have a specific type of design of how they would like it to go whenever we’re out there running around and scrambling,” he said. “(But) if one person decides to make a move and tries something, then it makes you want to do something different.
“It’s almost like when you’re driving on the highway, and somebody cuts you off. Immediately you have to react. That’s kind of how it is on the scramble drill. ...Because I was here for so long, it’s something that we always taught, and we always learned and it’s something that you always have in the back of your head anytime a play breaks down.”
Against Baltimore Sunday, plays are going to break down. The Ravens have the most sacks in the league to go with the NFL’s top-ranked pass defense.
And history says Lockett will do what he always does. Back to when he was in the sandlots of Tulsa — and past his expected career end, once upon a time.
“I just go back to backyard football,” he said. “When we were kids, we would go out there, play in the grass. There no rules. They try to be able to coach it in a way to where it’s not chaotic. But really, it’s about, how can you beat your man? How can you be able to get open?
“And then you try to make sure you’re on the same page with the quarterback.”
