Three Seahawks to watch vs Rams: More playing time for Tyler Lockett?

Here are some final thoughts on tonight’s Seahawks-Rams game and three players in particular to keep an eye on:

Tyler Lockett and the WR rotation. I think we’ll see a shift in playing time in Seattle’s wide receiver rotation with Lockett ascending to the No. 2 spot behind Doug Baldwin. Part of the reason is that Lockett is back to full speed following a knee injury that slowed him earlier in the season. That’s been evident for a while now but especially two weeks ago against Carolina. The other half of that equation is that Seattle isn’t getting much from Jermaine Kearse, who’s been the team’s second receiver in terms of playing time. Catch rate is one metric that illustrates the dropoff in Kearse’s production. His catch rate last season was 72.4 percent (49 of 68), which made him the seventh-most efficient receiver in terms of converting targets into receptions. It’s just below 50 percent this year (35 of 71). He’s actually being targeted more frequently this season (5.46 per game compared to 4.25) but has done less with those opportunities. In fairness to Kearse, more than just a receiver’s play factors into that, and the underthrown ball from Russell Wilson that resulted in an interception last week is an example of that. But Lockett has outperformed him this season. Each have 429 receiving yards, but Lockett has done so with fewer targets (71 to 55) and while playing a lower percentage of the team’s offensive snaps (roughly 81 percent to 58 percent). I’d expect the playing time to shift in Lockett’s direction starting tonight.

Will Steven Terrell be tested? He wasn’t in Green Bay, which was a bit of a surprise after what happened a week earlier against Carolina. The Panthers threw deep down the middle of the field (for their only touchdown of the game) on the first play that Terrell replaced Earl Thomas once he left with a season-ending leg fracture. Given that Thomas has been such a deterrent to those types of throws, it would stand to reason that Seattle could see more of them now that he’s out and Terrell, a much less experienced player, is replacing him. That didn’t happen in Green Bay, where more of the damage was done as a result of cornerbacks Jeremy Lane and DeShawn Shead getting beaten on the perimeter. Will it happen tonight? The Rams have been especially conservative on offense against the Seahawks in recent seasons, typically trying to chip away with underneath throws and not much deep. But there’s a level of unpredictability now that they have an interim head coach in John Fassel and a new quarterback in rookie Jared Goff. And Thomas is no longer patrolling the back end of Seattle’s defense, so there’s a chance that approach could change tonight.

Alex Collins’ role. He had the most productive game of his rookie season last week, totaling 56 yards on 10 touches. But much of that was in garbage time and he also lost a fumble, the second time he’s coughed up the ball this season in only 17 carries. Carroll said he liked how hard and aggressively Collins ran while also noting that he was playing through an illness. So the fumble doesn’t seem to have caused Seattle to lose much confidence in him. The Seahawks put Troymaine Pope on Injured Reserve this week and the running back they added to their roster, rookie Kelvin Taylor, is inactive tonight. That means Collins should get his share of touches as the only available tailback behind Thomas Rawls, especially if things get out of hand like they did last week.