SEATTLE — As a five-year veteran, Doug Baldwin is the elder statesman among the Seattle Seahawks wide receivers. He came into the NFL as an undrafted free agent and has worked his way up from the ground floor.
He is not shy about sharing his wisdom with younger players or about sharing his opinions with the media.
Tyler Lockett, he said, is the real deal, and there are going to be a lot more games like the one Lockett had Sunday as the Seahawks beat San Francisco 29-13 at CenturyLink Field.
“I was waiting for that kid to do what he just did, because he has so much potential,” Baldwin said. “He is so good.”
Lockett, a rookie, had two touchdown receptions Sunday on catches of 24 and 11 yards, and he finished with four receptions for 48 yards overall.
“You see Tyler Lockett and the things he can do. He’s so quick, so fast,” Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson said. “He’s a player that can do it all for us.”
The two touchdown receptions showcased the full package of Lockett’s skill set.
He’s really fast. On the first touchdown, Lockett beat man coverage by blowing past a defender and catching the ball in stride at the goal line.
He’s both agile and strong. On his second touchdown, he caught the ball in traffic at the 5-yard line, slipped out of one tackle and then fought his way into the end zone while being wrestled to the ground by two defenders.
“The second one, I just kind of ran a little slant route,” Lockett said. “I’m just trying to make the best of every opportunity. I really don’t know how I did it or what happened, but I just found out I was in the end zone, so I started celebrating.”
The two touchdown catches gave Lockett three for the season, tied with Baldwin for the team lead.
Lockett also has a kickoff return and a punt return for touchdowns this season, so he leads Seattle with five touchdowns.
The Seahawks traded four draft choices to move up into the third round of this year’s draft to pick him out of Kansas State.
“He’s doing great. He’s just one of our guys now,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said of Lockett. “We count on him making big plays and running down the field, but he’s also a really good route runner, too.
“It’s like he’s just one of the fellows out there for us,” Carroll said. “He’s just like a regular starter for us.”
Lockett said he and Baldwin have talked about the “rookie wall,” the point at which a young player realizes that no matter how good he was in college, this is a whole new animal and you better step it up, son, if you want to stick around.
“When he came in we told him right away there’s a different standard here, and you have to live up to the standard,” Baldwin said. “It doesn’t matter what round you were drafted in. You will get cut if you don’t live up to that standard.
“He took it to heart, he applied it to his game and he understood that it’s not about how many passes you get. It’s about making the most of your opportunities, and he’s done that from Day One and he’s done it without an attitude.”
“He’s in the midst of hitting the rookie wall right now, but I think this might propel him out of it,” Baldwin said of Lockett.
Lockett said he can feel his game improving as the season goes on.
He said the key is that he is becoming increasingly able to trust his instincts.
“A lot of players are great when they rely on their instincts instead of thinking,” Lockett said. “Thinking is more for when you’re in practice.
“That’s what practice is for, but when you come out in a game it’s all reaction. It’s all instincts and you just go out there and you play,” he said. “When somebody is able to rely on their instincts and play, that’s what makes them so great.”
Wilson echoed the thought that Lockett has earned everybody’s trust with his work ethic and his production.
“You really build trust through the way you practice,” Wilson said. “The best thing about Tyler Lockett and (running back) Thomas Rawls, those two rookies, the way they practice allows you to trust them completely out in the field. Then the plays they make on game day, you’re not surprised.”
Maybe us outsiders are surprised, but not the guys who watch them every day.
“I’m so proud of him,” Baldwin said of Lockett. “He’s doing a phenomenal job. I can’t say enough about him.”
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