The Seattle Seahawks’ decision to extend Tyler Lockett for three years and more than $30 million this summer was met with some initial skepticism.nike nfl jerseys cheap paypal
No one questioned whether Lockett was a player the Seahawks should keep in the fold. He’d been a productive part of their passing game and their special teams for his first three seasons, not to mention a model teammate and employee. But some observers wondered if he was worth a price tag that makes him one of the NFL’s highest-paid No. 2 receivers.
Lockett has scored a touchdown in all but one game this year while establishing himself as the Seahawks’ best big-play threat. And if you’re counting all the positive developments of their 4-3 start, you’d have to include the fact that Lockett is having the best season of his career.
“He’s showing who he is,” said Doug Baldwin, Seattle’s long-time No. 1 receiver after the Seahawks’ win over Detroit. “Tyler’s been a very consistent player since he came into the league. He’s been obviously very explosive and fast, but he’s now showing the ability to catch the football consistently. That’s huge. You can say that about a lot of receivers, but when it comes down to it, who are the best receivers when the ball is thrown to them? How many times do they come up with the catch? Tyler’s up there. I’m just proud of him. He’s been through a lot just to get to this point so I’m really proud of his success right now.”
It’s an ascension that the Seahawks were expecting when they gave him a $30.75 million deal shortly before the season instead of letting him play out of the final year of his rookie contract.
The $10.25 million average of Lockett’s extension ranks 21st among receivers, according to Spotrac.com. That was hard for some to reconcile with Lockett’s offensive production over his first three seasons. According to ESPN charting, he ranked 50th among receivers in catches (137), 49th in receiving yards (1,816) and tied for 58th in touchdown receptions (nine) during that span.cheap nfl nike jerseys china
But the notion that Seattle overpaid Lockett based on his receiving production to date was misguided. A team doesn’t pay a player strictly for what he has done so much as it makes a calculated bet that the player will at least sustain his level of production or, in this case, increase it. The Seahawks believed that Lockett was an ascending player. He only turned 26 in September and had shown all offseason that he had regained the speed that was missing when he came back last year from a badly broken leg.
