After rumors he didn’t appreciate, Tyler Lockett stays ‘home’ for Seahawks year 10
Tyler Lockett had been waiting months to say this.
“Please,” the 31-year-old wide receiver, team captain and longest-tenured Seahawk said this week, “don’t put no more trade requests out there for me.
“Because I see y’all’s articles about me getting traded.
“Like — no.”
With that, Lockett walked away from his first public comments since the end of the last NFL season - which for for Seattle was in early January and not in the playoffs, for only the third time in 12 years.
Lockett’s been with the Seahawks for the last nine seasons. He’s been a Pro Bowl kick returner. He’s been a trusted target on third downs and late in games for quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Geno Smith.
Yet once an NFL player passes his 30th birthday, nothing is guaranteed. Particularly the future.
So when Seahawks general manager John Schneider, the man who drafted Lockett in 2015 after his record-setting college career at Kansas State, came to the wide receiver’s agents at Athletes First this offseason asking him to renegotiate his contract to stay on the team and save Seattle money to sign free agents, Lockett was all for it.
He appreciated being wanted at 31 years old. And, as he’s already made clear, he didn’t want to leave.
“For me, Seattle is home,” he said.
Last month he renegotiated his contract, to stay home. His deal used to have two years and $34 million remaining on it. Now it has two years and $30 million remaining.
Lockett agreed to the Seahawks turning the $4 million difference in his remaining contract value into potential incentive bonus money. His team can spread that across the league’s salary cap this year and in 2025. Lockett has a lower cap charge this year, and a higher one for next year when the league’s salary cap will rise again.
For doing that, Lockett gets about $13 million guaranteed for this year. His previous contract had no guaranteed money for 2024.
“Obviously, it’s a business,” he said, “and so you’ve got to kind of look and see what’s good for them. See what’s good for yourself, as well.”
Lockett went out of his way this week to thank Schneider for his faith. It saw the receiver through the Seahawks’ coaching change in January, from Pete Carroll, the only NFL coach Lockett’s had, to 36-year-old first time head coach Mike Macdonald.
“With everything that I’ve had a chance to be able to do, it’s really cool that you hear that the staff wants you to be on the team, as well, you know what I’m saying?” Lockett said. “It’s cool to hear stuff about John, whenever he’s talking to my agent, and see how they see me, how they still view me. ...
“At the end of the day, every player just wants to feel appreciated, and they want to be able to feel like they are still a part of the team. ...Believe it or not, when people get older things change and they might view you differently.
“He still saw me as the same player. He still believes in me that I can still do a lot of great things. Still gave me this opportunity.”
Tyler Lockett ‘shocked’ at Pete Carroll’s firing
Two days after Lockett’s ninth Seahawks season ended in early January, team chair Jody Allen and vice chair Bert Kolde decided to fire Carroll after his 14 years as the team’s ultimate authority for all football matters.
“I was shocked,” Lockett said. “I mean, I think everybody was shocked.
“Sometimes, if you’re here long enough you see it coming. Like, I’ve seen so many tweets and stuff about people saying it was time for me to go.”
It reminded Lockett of Richard Sherman, his former All-Pro cornerback teammate with the Seahawks.
“I think Sherm has said it a long time ago,” Lockett said. “The longer you stay the longer you become a villain.
“When Pete was let go it was real shocking.”
Three months after Carroll’s firing, Lockett, quarterback Geno Smith and the Seahawks offense are learning an entirely new playbook. It’s all-new terminology. New coordinator and play caller Ryan Grubb has arrived after two wondrous years as QB Michael Penix Jr.’s play designer and caller for the University of Washington.
Smith said this week Grubb has the Seahawks watching a lot of UW game film to teach Seattle’s NFL team its new offense in this first of two weeks of the formal offseason training program.
“Yeah,” Smith said, “everything’s brand new. It’s all new terminology. There are going to be new protections. Everything is going to be new. It’s a fresh start, as far as learning the offense. For all of us.”
Tyler Lockett, learning mode
Macdonald is installing new ways to think, practice and play for Smith, Lockett and these Seahawks. They come from Macdonald’s decade coaching defense with the often-dominant Baltimore Ravens.
Entering year 10 of his NFL career, Lockett is all ears. He is already diving into absorbing what Macdonald and his 21 new Seahawks assistant coaches are teaching.
“This is a young cat that you can be able to learn from,” said Lockett, who is five years younger than his new head coach, “and you can be able to understand his mentality. Like, what made them so great out there in Baltimore. What made him be able to pick the coaches that came here to be a part of the team.
“What you’ve got to do is a establish a relationship, and understand: ‘How do you coach? How do you see the game? This is how I see the game. This is how I play.’
“Now, you are just working to recreate that chemistry.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
