Is there any chance Lockett remains on Seahawks in 2025?

It feels like the writing is on the wall for Tyler Lockett.

The longtime Seattle Seahawks wide receiver still has one year left on his contract, but he’s set to carry a massive $30.895 million salary cap hit for 2025, according to Over The Cap. Given his age and declining production, that makes the 32-year-old Lockett an obvious cap casualty candidate.

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The Seahawks are currently projected to be $13.5 million over the cap, which is the fourth-worst cap situation in the league. By releasing Lockett, they could clear $17 million in cap space.

“It’s very, very unlikely that Tyler Lockett is going to be back,” co-host Mike Salk said Tuesday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “We all know it. We all understand it. We are all sort of accepting of it.

“It’s still just kind of a bummer. Not because they shouldn’t do it, but he’s just one of those guys that it bums you out that it’s gonna be coming to an end.”

After four consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons from 2019 to 2022, Lockett’s production has slipped the past two years. He had 49 catches for 600 yards and two touchdowns this past season – all of which were his lowest totals since 2017. That dropped him to third in the Seahawks’ receiving pecking order, behind 2023 first-round pick Jaxon Smith-Njigba and star DK Metcalf.

Lockett’s 2025 cap hit would be the fourth-highest of any wide receiver in the league, trailing only Davante Adams, CeeDee Lamb and Metcalf.

“There’s just no way a Seahawks team ($13.5 million) over the projected cap can bring a guy who profiles as their third-best wideout back on that sort of deal,” ESPN’s Bill Barnwell wrote in an article published Monday.

What about a reduced deal?

For Lockett to remain in Seattle, it seems the only path would be through a reduced contract. Would that be a possibility? Former NFL quarterback Brock Huard doesn’t think it’s likely.

“I just think from a path and runway standpoint, you’re gonna have to develop the next young guy,” Huard said. “You don’t want your third receiver to be 30-something years old. You want that guy ascending and growing and developing. And I think also when you’ve made what he’s made here and produced the way he’s produced here, it’s hard for those guys to just be on a league-minimum kind of deal.

“So yeah, you felt it at the end of the year. You felt it at his final press conference. You felt it when (head coach) Mike Macdonald kind of dodged a question when he met with the media last week.”

Huard also pointed to head coach Macdonald’s desire to build a physical football team.

“At this stage, that’s not Tyler’s game,” Huard said. “Tyler’s game from the jump was elusive and playmaking and difference-making. It was never necessarily physical. And at this stage, it’s nowhere near that.”

Since being drafted by the Seahawks as a third-round pick in 2015, Lockett has racked up 8,594 receiving yards and 61 touchdown catches over his decorated 10-year career in the Pacific Northwest. He ranks second in franchise history in both categories, trailing only Hall of Famer Steve Largent.

“I love the man, like everybody does in Seattle,” Salk said. “I mean, just a tremendously classy representative for the team for the entirety of his tenure here. It’s a bummer that that’s going to come to an end, (but) time gets everybody. It’s just sad that that era’s over.

“But from a football standpoint, to me this is about as big a no-brainer as you’re gonna find.”

Listen to the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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