The praise flowed for Tyler Lockett on Sunday, and his exploits were fully visible to anyone who watched the Seahawks’ 33-13 win over the Houston Texans.
Yet why does it still feel that Lockett is somehow underappreciated, a superstar in our midst who isn’t widely recognized for what he has surely become: one of the top receivers in the NFL.
Not one of the top slot receivers. Not one of the top undersized receivers. Simply one of the elite, now sitting eighth in the NFL with his 1,023 yards and sixth with his average of 16.5 yards per catch.
Typically, Lockett wasn’t the story of the game for Seattle, despite his five catches for 142 yards that put him over 1,000 yards for the third consecutive season. Only Steve Largent had done that — twice — in Seahawks history. The only NFL player to rack up a similar accomplishment over the past three seasons so far — more will follow — is Cooper Kupp of the Rams.
Yet the postgame buzz Sunday was largely about Rashaad Penny, finally showing flashes of his vast potential with 137 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Penny’s emergence was both overdue and unexpected, which made it something to chew on. Did this change the equation for the running back’s future in Seattle as his rookie contract nears an end?
Lockett was merely doing what he has done for seven seasons, making a quiet impact that can get lost in the tumult of the NFL. Not that Lockett minds; he has never been an attention hog. When he was announced as the Seahawks’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee last week for community service, his first comment was that he likes to do his good work in anonymity, for the reward of giving and not for the glory that attaches to it.
Sometimes it feels as if his career operates under the same principle, hidden in plain sight. The Seahawks’ inability to fully exploit the potentially devastating offensive potential of DK Metcalf as much as they have in previous years is one of the most frustrating elements of their 5-8 season. Yet while people fret over the puzzling loss of connection between quarterback Russell Wilson and Metcalf, Wilson and Lockett continue to operate with an uncanny telepathy.
That was on display multiple times Sunday when Lockett made a series of catches that prolonged drives, and then connected on a 55-yard home-run ball for a vital touchdown with less than a minute left in the first half.
Lockett’s first catch, a 29-yard sideline reception on third-and-10, after Wilson scrambled away from the rush, was a master class of improvisation and body control. And perhaps no play Sunday reflected their shared intuition more keenly than a two-point conversion in which Wilson rolled to his left to keep the play alive. He then threw across his body to Lockett, who ad-libbed himself to an open patch of the end zone, knowing from experience that Wilson would find him.
It was an exquisite yet hardly uncommon example of the two mastering the aspect of football that Wilson described as, in one of his more poetic turns of phrase, “a beautiful yet chaotic puzzle piece.”
“Tyler’s one of those guys where the connection is really remarkable,” Wilson added. “We work at it every day. He spends extra time watching film with me. We do extra work, we talk about it, we get up early in the mornings, and that’s really been showing up.”
Lockett agreed that it takes a lot of work and preparation to become so instinctual, an oxymoron that reveals itself weekly.
“A lot of it is just being able to understand the way he (Wilson) does things, the way that he operates, the way he creates plays with his feet,” Lockett said. “Then after that it’s just being able to try to get open the best way you can.
“I think the best part about the scramble drill is it’s something that can be taught, but it’s something that comes naturally when you have people that can adjust.”
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll called them “magic plays” and added: “Those are two marvelous, all-around athletes with great, savvy instincts. You put those two together with enough time to develop their sense for one another, this is what you see.”
Lockett’s success as a smaller receiver (he’s listed at 5 feet 10 and 182 pounds) will “create opportunities for guys all over the world,” said Wilson, who knows something about changing the perception of whether size is commensurate with success.
“I think Tyler Lockett will be one of those guys that is forever remembered,” Wilson added.
And, it’s hoped, appreciated now.
