Tyler Lockett wows himself by entering his 10th season in the NFL, all with the Seahawks

When Tyler Lockett entered the NFL, eight was enough.

“Eight just looked like a good number, because my dad played seven (years),” Lockett said.

Kevin Lockett preceded his son in setting college receiving records at Kansas State. Kevin Lockett played in the NFL from 1997-2003, for Kansas City, Washington, Jacksonville and the New York Jets.

“When I had beat his records at K-State, he was like, ‘But you didn’t get drafted in front of me,’” Tyler Lockett said.

He was the Seahawks’ third-round pick in 2015. The Chiefs selected Dad in the second round of the 1997 NFL draft.

“It was like, ‘Let me try to play eight (years),’” Tyler Lockett said. “Then I played eight.

“It wasn’t (any) level of competition, but now I can at least be like, ‘You played seven.’”

Sunday, 20 days short of his 32nd birthday, Lockett will play his 10th season opener for Seattle. His Seahawks host the Denver Broncos at Lumen Field (1:05 p.m., channel 7).

This milestone while playing his 145th NFL regular-season game Sunday isn’t lost on Lockett.

“Yeah, I was just talking to (teammate) Laken (Tomlinson, 32, a 10-year pro) about this,” Lockett, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, said this week. “So Laken and I are in the same agency and have the same agent. And we were just talking about like, ‘Man, what’s the percentage of guys that get into year 10?’ And we were like, ‘It’s probably 1%.’

“It’s a blessing to me still to be here in year 10.

“We always say it’s three and a half is the average. Basically, I beat that dang near three times.”

Lockett long ago made his mark as the team’s indispensable first-down maker and its locker-room sage. He was a team captain through last season; this year, new coach Mike Macdonald isn’t having season captains, only those by game.

The longest-tenured Seahawk has made Seattle a better community through his spoken-word hobby and his philanthropic work such as youth football camps. He’s made a sizable second income as a licensed real-estate agent selling high-end homes.

He’s made the Pro Bowl as a kick returner, as a Seahawks rookie those 10 years ago.

He’s made teammate DK Metcalf, five years younger, a better NFL receiver.

And a brother.

“I always ask him his opinion on certain routes or certain coverages, or what he sees here,” Metcalf said.

“We always talk about football, and life outside of football. Just a great brother that I’ve met throughout this whole journey.”

Asked what 10 years with one team in this short-term, nothing-is-guaranteed league and profession says to him about Lockett, Metcalf crystallized it in one word.

“He’s loyal. Loyalty speaks volumes of a man’s character, in my opinion,” Metcalf said. “He’s been loyal to this team, to this organization, to this city.

“He’s coming to my wedding someday.

“So, thanks, Tyler Lockett, for being a good big brother to me since I got here.”

Tyler Lockett: No regrets

As Lockett alluded to, the average NFL career lasts 3.3 years. Or until about age 24, 25.

That’s even with Major League Soccer as the shortest career spans of any professional sport in North America.

What does Lockett see as the key to him playing 10 years with the Seahawks.

“My faith,” he said, “and then, they decide to keep me.”

He chuckled.

“I think for me, the biggest thing that I tell a lot of people is, you’ve got to put down how many number of years you want to play, but you can’t control what team it is. So if you say I want to play eight years, you’ve got to focus on giving it your all for those eight years. You can’t get to caught up in emotional to be attached to a team, because a team is going to do what’s best for the team, at all times.

“For me, I always want to give it all I’ve got. I want to see how far I can take this game, regardless of how many years I’ve got left. I want to be able to really be the best that I can be because I know when I chose to be done playing, I’m not going to miss the game.”

A lot of guys say they fear the end of their careers. Doug Baldwin and K.J. Wright, among other recent Seahawks to retire, have talked openly how difficult their transitions years leaving football were on their mental health.

“I struggled for a very long time,” Baldwin, Seattle’s retired Pro Bowl and Super Bowl-winning wide receiver who played for the team from 2011-18, told KJR-FM radio last month.

Wright told The News Tribune on KJR in June he was in tears shortly after he retired following the 2021 season, following 10 years with the Seahawks and a last one for the Las Vegas Raiders.

“Physically, I’m good,” the former linebacker, now an assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers, told the TNT in June. “But I will tell you this: Mentally, when you leave the game, it’s like a void you will feel ...

“I went thru those moments of crying.”

Wright said for a while without football he lacked an identity.

Lockett’s contract ends following the 2025 season. His charge against the Seahawks’ salary cap balloons from $18.9 million this year to a scheduled $30.9 million next year.

Whenever he decides to leave — and he’s talked it might be relatively sooner than later —what makes Lockett assured he won’t miss the game?

“Because I made sure that I used every amount, every route that I could possible. I made sure I used every amount of energy possible to play this game,” he said.

“I don’t want to leave too early to where I want to come back and then it’s hard to get back in once you leave. I want to play to the point to where I feel like I did what I wanted to do. Then when I choose to be done, I’m good.”

Tyler Lockett’s goals

So what goals does that leave him with for 2024? He’s in a new offense coordinator Ryan Grubb’s has brought from the University of Washington. The college-based, deep-strike, big-play system is a vast departure from the NFL-based systems he’s been in for a decade in Seattle.

Lockett’s got more granular goals than catches or yards or another Pro Bowl selection.

“Going into year 10, I want to be the best version of myself,” Lockett said. “Whether that’s blocking, because I could do a way better job of blocking, whether that’s being a better decoy, whether that’s getting myself open.

“I’m at the point now where I want to be able to take my game to another level. Regardless of age, regardless of years.”

Meanwhile, he will continue to teach Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jake Bobo and all fellow Seahawks wide receivers the tricks in reading defenses and playing the games he’s played for now 10 years in the league.

The specific skill Metcalf has gained from Lockett, since Metcalf’s rookie season of 2019 when Russell Wilson, not current quarterback Geno Smith, was throwing Seattle’s passes?

“If a play breaks down, don’t stop your route,” Metcalf said. “Keep working.”

Tyler Lockett’s leg issue

This preseason, the Seahawks’ coaches and training staff preserved Lockett for year 10.

Last month he had a thigh injury. The team kept him out of practices from the week of the Seahawks’ joint practices with the Tennessee Titans in Nashville Aug. 14-15 through the end of the month.

He was a limited participant in practice Wednesday. But when asked if he was playing Sunday Lockett flashed an “are-you-kidding-me” look and said “yeah.”

While not practicing fully, Lockett has kept studying Grubb’s schemes. He said he wants to know them “like the back of my hand.” He’s kept catching passes out of the Jugs machine after practices he watched.

“Just kind of getting back into it, I’ve been trying to do whatever it takes, whether it’s trying to learn the offense like it’s the back of my hand or whether it’s just being able to stay out a little bit later, catching jugs or just kind of getting back into my rhythm but feeling pretty good, running pretty good and excited to kind of get year 10 underway.”

Lockett is refreshed by Macdonald and, specifically, first-year NFL offensive coordinator Grubb’s new Seahawks offense.

“I mean, sometimes new is good,” Lockett said. “It’s hard to imagine if you were in the same offense for 10 straight years if there would be any excitement for you coming in. Meetings would be a lot more difficult because you know everything left and right, because you’ve been a part of something for so long.

“It’s been interesting because I think every three years, I’ve had a new offensive coordinator. And so it’s allowed me to approach the game differently, and it’s allowed me to see the game differently and learn different ways and unique abilities to be able to use my skills.”