Getty Seahawks wide receivers Tyler Lockett (L) and DK Metcalf.
There are few athletic specimens in the world, let alone in the NFL, as impressive as Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf. The 6-foot-4, 235-pound pass-catcher is shredded like a comic book character, and if he wasn’t a professional football player, he’d probably be an Olympic-lever sprinter.
However, according to Metcalf himself, he’s not the most athletic player on the Seahawks roster. His 5-foot-10, 182-pound WR partner Tyler Lockett is.
DK Metcalf Says Tyler Lockett Is the Most Athletic Seahawks Player
DK Metcalf is a world-class athlete by any definition of the term. The size, strength, and speed required to play in the NFL alone puts him in that category.
In the 2021 offseason, though, with no sport-specific training and carrying all the muscle it takes to play pro football, the WR competed in an official Olympic trials race. And he did OK!
At the 2021 USA Track and Field Golden Games and Distance Open in Walnut, California, Metcalf competed in the 100-meter dash — the race known for crowning “The Fastest Man in the World” — against 16 world-class sprinters. He ran a 10.37-second time, per ESPN, putting him 15th out of 17 runners, but at 229 pounds at the time, that’s still incredible, and less than a second behind Usain Bolt’s world record of 9.58 seconds, for context.
Despite all that, Metcalf says his partner in pass-catching, Seahawks WR Tyler Lockett, is the most naturally athletic player on the roster.
“Tyler’s the best athlete I’ve ever seen on the planet,” Metcalf told Greg Bell of The News Tribune. “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.”
Now, that may have been a little bit of a friendly backhanded compliment saying that Lockett doesn’t train all that much but can still fluster opponents. But it is notable that Metcalf is impressed by his athletic ability and one of the reasons Metcalf and Lockett are one of the best 1-2 WR duos in the NFL.
What Is the Best 1-2 WR Duo in the NFL?
Lockett and Metcalf are among the best WR duos in the league over the last few seasons. But are they the best?
Only a few pairs of pass-catchers even qualify for this argument. The Miami Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, Philadelphia Eagles‘ A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, San Francisco 49ers‘ Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, and the Cincinnati Bengals‘ Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins all qualify.
Last season, Hill and Waddle finished for the most combined receiving yards (3,165), followed by Brown and Smith (2,712), Metcalf and Lockett (2,081), and Chase and Higgins (2,075).
In 2023, through eight weeks, it’s once again Hill and Waddle in the lead (1,521), with Brown and Smith close behind (1,421). Lockett and Metcalf are only at 774, but that is mostly a function of the emergence of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jake Bobo more than anything else.
When you look at PFF receiving grades for 2023, Lockett and Metcalf are right near the top among WR duos with a 157 combined grade. Jake Bobo lands in between the two with a 78.8 mark, giving the Seahawks the highest-graded WR trio in the league.
As far as twosomes go, though, again it’s Hill and Waddle (176.4) followed by Aiyuk and Samuel (170.6) and actually the Los Angeles Rams’ Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp (161.8) ahead of the Seattle teammates.
The verdict here is that while Hill and Waddle are pretty clearly the best WR duo in the NFL right now, Lockett and Metcalf aren’t far behind, and Seahawks fans will love that a real argument can be made that Metcalf Lockett, Bobo, and Smith-Njigba make up the best WR room — top to bottom — in the entire league.