Tyler Lockett has been a bargain

On the verge of being released, Tyler Lockett's 10 NFL seasons and total take home pay has the Seahawks coming out on top

What would you pay for a receiver who averaged these numbers over three years:

• 46 catches

• 605 yards

• 3 TDs

• All-Pro punt and kick returner all three seasons

These are not spectacular receiving numbers, but combined with his special teams value, positive team leadership attributes, and no off-field problems, that type of receiver would be welcomed to any locker room.

The answer to the question of what a team would pay: The Seahawks paid Tyler Lockett a grand total of $2,496,752 over his first three seasons in the NFL for an average of $832,250 per year.

What would most NFL teams for a player like that?

The answer is…about $832,000 per season + inflation.

It’s not a trick question, it’s business. NFL teams need to find value anywhere they can and the reality is that not only are “very good” receivers found in the draft on an annual basis, but receivers who can put up more than twice as many yards and touchdowns per year as Lockett are springing out of the draft like:

With Lockett expected to be released soon — a probability that most reporters are treating like a shock when it’s a date I’ve been writing about for over a year — the Seahawks will replace his unfortunately-high 2025 compensation for the newer, younger, cheaper version of Lockett.

It’s also a good time to appreciate how valuable Tyler Lockett has been to the Seahawks.

With numbers like “$35 million per season” floating around for wide receivers lately, fans should be reminded that the actual number that players get compensated over their careers is much, much, MUCH lower.

Lockett’s average annual take home pay over all 10 seasons in the NFL?

$8,880,375

It’s relatively low for a receiver who has accomplished as much as Lockett has in his career…but not much lower than the top tier than you think.

Tyreek Hill’s average take home pay over nine years? $13 million.

We (or maybe it’s just me, I don’t want to assume this on you) tend to forget those rookie contract seasons when we assign dollar values to players, even though as I just said, receivers often practically start as Pro Bowlers in the NFL.

It’s like being born and learning to walk on your first day on Earth, dancing in your first week, and getting kicked out of the house after your first month.

Those seasons when Lockett was a great punt/kick returner and a good complementary receiver cost the Seahawks only $800,000 per year. Even when Lockett signed his first extension when he became eligible in 2018 — because a) you don’t let your good picks leave that soon and b) an earlier extension also helped Seattle save money — he signed for $10.6 million per year but only ended up with $8.87 million per year on that deal.

Through his first six seasons in the NFL, Lockett earned $29 million.

That’s less than $5 million per year for a player who is second all-time in franchise history in receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, and catches!

After six years in the league, Lockett would be 29 the next season, an age that usually sees receivers working out their retirement plans, but he was one of the lucky few to get a third contract in the NFL in 2021.

Lockett signed a four-year, $69.2 million extension in 2021, raising his “APY” to $17.3 million per season on the new deal. But two years into the deal, and in clear decline, Lockett had to accept a renegotiated deal in 2024, bringing his actual APY down to $15.56 million.

(Lockett also restructured in 2023, but this is not a pay cut.)

After agreeing to a pay cut last year, Lockett still earned $13 million in 2024, the third-most amount of cash that he took home in any season of his career. As far as the team is concerned that makes 2024 the least valuable season of Lockett’s 10 years in Seattle, because he just could not do the same things at 32 that he could do at 26, but he was paid like a number one.

That doesn’t change the fact that he gave the Seahawks much more than they actually had to pay for over his career.

The most expensive stretch of Tyler Lockett

The only time that Lockett was really an “expensive” receiver was from 2018 (the first year of his first extension) to 2022 (the first year of his second extension), a span in which he took home:

$62.7 million

Average: $12.54 million per season

In the grand scheme of things, that’s an unfathomable amount of money for a person to earn in five years. But didn’t you assume that Lockett’s most expensive five-year stretch was higher than $12.5 million per year?

I mean he signed a deal “worth $17.3 million” per year!

It’s a great reminder that contracts are not much different than press releases: They are designed to tell you what the source wants you to believe, not necessarily what the real numbers are.

Again, Lockett earned about $8.8 million per season of his career, largely thanks to the bargain that most players are on their rookie contracts. Let’s compare that to some other receivers and their career APY:

• Tyreek Hill, $13 million

• Stefon Diggs, $12.8 million

• DeAndre Hopkins, $11.9 million

• Davante Adams, $11.8 million

• Cooper Kupp, $11.7 million

• Keenan Allen, $11.1 million

• DK Metcalf, $10.3 million

• Courtland Sutton, $7.9 million

• Adam Thielen, $6.8 million

NOTE: This is the average amount of take home pay (CASH) per season already played in the NFL, not the average cap salary cap hit of the player over the life of all of their contracts!

Davante Adams and the one-time nest egg

A perfect example of how thin the margin is between Lockett’s career earnings and the top tier receivers is the contract life of Davante Adams. Often referred to as “the best receiver in the NFL” from about 2020 to 2022, Adams has a career average of $11.8 million. If that seems low, it could be much lower.

If you ever reach the NFL, try to sign one contract with the Raiders:

• Adams signed 5-year, $140m deal with the Raiders in 2022 (after being tagged and traded)

• His cash paid in 2022: $43.6 million!

• That’s as much as Adams made in the two years before and the two years after 2022 combined!

This is truly a “get paid when you can get paid” business. Over 30% of Adams’ career earnings came in 2022. And for Lockett, we know that his most expensive years — which were not that expensive — more than made up for the three seasons in which he made less than one percent of the salary cap.

Those were also the years in which he vaulted to the top of the Seahawks franchise history save every receiver except for Steve Largent.

Tyler Lockett, 2018-2022

During his five best seasons, Lockett caught 396 passes for 5,284 yards and 45 touchdowns:

• 9th in yards

• 9th in catches

• t5th in touchdowns

Only Adams, Hill, Mike Evans, and Travis Kelce caught more touchdowns over those five seasons.

NOTE: 7 of the top 8 players in receiving touchdowns from 2018-2022 were NOT FIRST ROUND PICKS…Adams (2nd), Hill (5th), Kelce (3rd), Lockett (3rd), Thielen (UDFA), Diggs (5th), and Kupp (3rd)!

So paying Lockett $12.5 million per season at that time feels like a steal, although as you can see every veteran player actually makes less than you think.

As a former undrafted free agent, Thielen made less than $2 million over his first four years in the NFL, then he made $11 million over the next two, for a total of $13 million in six seasons; the last three of which, Thielen had over 3,600 yards.

Teams almost always get the better end of the deal (unless that team is the Raiders) and they almost always release the player before he hits the seasons that are tagged on at the end of the contract for the press release.

In a matter of weeks, or days, maybe even hours, Tyler Lockett will be the latest player to have his fate decided because contract savings ($17 million) outweigh his current abilities relative to what teams pay for those contributions around the league. Lockett will not be replaced by Kupp or Adams or any other veteran receiver going through the same process. He will be replaced by the next version a contributing receiver who makes $1 million on a rookie contract because that allows Seattle to “over-pay” other veterans.

(All-Pro Puka Nacua made less than $1 million for the Rams in each of his first two seasons.)

Veterans making more than you and I, but less than you think and probably still less than they deserve.

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