Getty Tyler Lockett is going to be a Seahawk for a long time.
The Seattle Seahawks are keeping Tyler Lockett in the Pacific Northwest for a long time. The Seahawks are signing Lockett to a four-year, $69.2 million contract extension which includes $37 million of guaranteed money, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Lockett was entering the final season of a three-year, $30.7 million deal, per Spotrac. The Seahawks receiver has had two straight seasons with more than 1,000 yards and three straight years notching eight or more touchdowns. Lockett had 100 receptions for 1,054 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2020.
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Wilson on Lockett’s New Contract: ‘You Deserve It All’
Russell Wilson will have his top two receiving options in Seattle for the foreseeable future as DK Metcalf still has two more years remaining on his rookie contract. Wilson appears pleased that one of his favorite targets is staying in Seattle.
“The homie!!! @TDLockett12 Let’s go!!! You deserve it all! Love you bro! 💪🏾🙌🏾” Wilson tweeted after news broke of Lockett’s new deal.
Former Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin had the perfect response to Lockett’s new contract. Let’s just say Baldwin does not expect to be paying for lunch any time soon.
“Yo @TDLockett12 you got the lunch bill the next 16 times!” Baldwin said on Twitter.
Carroll on Lockett’s Connection with Wilson: ‘They See It as One & That’s Chemistry & Extraordinary Savvy’
During an October 2020 press conference, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll spoke glowingly about Lockett. Carroll praised Lockett’s development noting “there’s nothing that he can’t makes sense of” on the football field.
“Right now, there’s nothing that he can’t makes sense of,” Carroll explained, via Seahawks.com. “Some of the turn arounds that he made on the touchdown catch, on another catch he made on the scramble situation, it was just almost instant reactions to put himself in the great positions and all. He has the extraordinary ability to capitalize on that too. He can finish the play and make the game catch and all that as he showed. It’s nothing new. It’s just pretty exciting to have a guy playing like that at that level and also, to have had the background with Russ. The two of them, they’re both just highly, highly instinctive football players… As we’ve seen so many times, those guys just see football together. They see it as one, and that’s chemistry and extraordinary savvy.”
Lockett’s New Deal Will Likely Create Cap Space for the Seahawks in 2021
It will be interesting to see how Lockett’s contract is structured as the Seahawks have been using extensions this offseason as a way to create cap space for 2021. We have also seen the Seahawks and other NFL teams utilize voidable years as a way to stretch out money over multiple seasons rather than taking the upfront cap hit. ESPN’s Brady Henderson expects Lockett’s extension to create more cap space for the Seahawks heading into next season.
“Lockett was set to have the third-largest cap hit of any Seahawks player in 2021 at $14.95 million,” Henderson explained. “His extension is expected to lower that number and give Seattle some needed breathing room against the cap. That could help explain the timing of Lockett’s extension, which comes much earlier in the offseason than when the Seahawks typically do new deals for players who are already under contract.”