Is this the last hurrah for Tyler Lockett in Seattle? If so, treasure his greatness

With their playoff hopes flickering, the Seahawks most likely have only two games left this year, Thursday night at Chicago and Jan. 4th or 5th in L.A. against the Rams.

It figures to be doubly disappointing because in addition to not making the playoffs, it probably means the end of Tyler Lockett’s brilliant NFL career in Seattle.

This isn’t a surprising development; in fact, it was a potential storyline before the season even began. At 32, Lockett entered his 10th season with a manageable salary of $12.4 million given his anticipated production. In the previous six seasons, Lockett averaged 1,029 receiving yards and 8.3 touchdowns.

But through 15 games this year, Lockett has only 552 receiving yards and two TDs. He’s been noticeably absent in the last six games, with a high of 22 yards against Arizona. In the last three games, he has only three receptions for 41 yards.

If he were younger, you could chalk it up to a mini-slump. Or maybe it’s the new offense. More accurately, it’s the emergence of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who has replaced Lockett in the team’s top two receiving tandem along with D.K Metcalf. JSN has already topped 1,000 yards and needs just seven catches for 100 receptions this year.

Even at that, you could make a case for Lockett to return in the third receiver role he has now. But in 2025 he carries a salary cap hit of $30.9 million, fourth among NFL receivers, behind only Davante Adams ($38.3M), CeeDee Lamb ($35.4M) and Metcalf ($31.8M). If Lockett gets cut, the Seahawks would save $16 million against the cap.

Lockett could agree to another restructured contract, but team president John Schneider is more apt to release him given his history of cutting prominent players such as Bobby Wagner and Richard Sherman when he feels their time is up.

A nicer ending would feature Lockett behind a podium at a news conference announcing his retirement, finishing his career with the team that selected him in the third round of the 2015 draft out of Kansas State. He could seamlessly stay in Seattle, pick up where he left off as a local real estate agent and spend more time at home with his wife and two golden doodles and a first child on his or her way in 2025.

But Lockett has privately said he still wants to play next year, whether it’s here or somewhere else. Maybe he’d like to go to Kansas City or Dallas, cities that are closer to his hometown of Tulsa.

In the meantime, there are still two more games to watch Lockett find space in the secondary to make another sliding catch with those terrific hands of his. Lockett has never gotten his due nationally, but it’s always been a full-on love affair in Seattle with fans who appreciate his greatness, consistently coming through with a flashy catch here and a first-down catch there.

But in his rookie season in 2015 we were introduced to him as a spectacular returner. In his first game, he returned a punt 57 yards for a touchdown against the Rams and later that season returned a kickoff 105 yards for another score against the Bears.

The Cardinals would have been better off punting the ball out of bounds than to kick it to Lockett, who had 139 return yards on four punts.

After that Lockett largely starred as a clutch receiver whose targets always seemed to result in routine receptions or highlight grabbers when he somehow got both feet in bounds while securing the ball again. Lockett had a career-best 15 receptions for 200 yards and three TDs against the Cardinals in 2020.

As the Seahawks’ second-leading receiver in franchise history to Steve Largent, Lockett will be in the team’s Ring of Honor by the end of the decade.

Besides his impact as a player, Lockett stands out by just being so darn likable. I can’t decide what I like more about him - that he’s able to excel at his small size in a profession filled with bigger, more physical players or that he has a small ego, never thinking he’s a big deal when he actually is.

It’s one thing for fans to love the guy, but it extends to the locker room where Lockett is not only respected but revered.

Two games remain in his Seahawks’ career and even if he’s the third option now, surely we’ll see him move the chains in Chicago and make his 62nd touchdown reception in L.A., causing Steve Raible to go out of his mind calling the toe-tapping catch from the broadcast booth.

Tyler Lockett has burned defensive backs from day one - it’s time to raise our glasses and toast him now.

Jim Moore has covered Washington’s sports scene from every angle for multiple news outlets. He appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 a.m. on Jason Puckett’s podcast at PuckSports.com. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) @cougsgo.