Seahawks and Tyler Lockett’s seasons both likely ended vs. 49ers

The Seahawks, sadly and unsurprisingly, lost to the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday. Seattle is now 7-7 and has lost four out of their last five games. Next Seattle plays the Chiefs in Kansas City. That game doesn’t seem to be a chance for Seattle to get victory number 8 as the Chiefs will probably be the best offensive team Seattle has played this season.

To makes things worse, though, is that Tyler Lockett broke his index finger against the 49ers. According to head coach Pete Carroll, Lockett will “miss some time.” But there are only three games left in the season so missing any time at all probably means missing the rest of the year.

And while the Seahawks offense has been unexpectedly good for much of the year, an offense without Lockett simply shouldn’t work as well. DK Metcalf is a great receiver at times, but there should be little faith that he can be extremely productive without Lockett on the other side of the field from him. Part of what has made Seattle’s offense good is that it has several weapons, suck as Lockett and Metcalf, Noah Fant, and Ken Walker III.

Seahawks receiver Tyler Lockett very likely done for the season

But the most important part of that group might be Lockett. He is the one receiver who when the team absolutely must have a pass caught, will catch it. Metcalf can be explosive but he certainly doesn’t have the hands Lockett does. And no other receiver, even Fant, has proven to be a consistent threat.

So what hope do the Seahawks have to cling to any playoff hopes if the offense is reduced? Seattle’s defense simply isn’t very good. Yes, they limited the 49ers to 21 points (and 7 of those came after a Travis Homer fumble allowed San Francisco to start the drive inside Seattle’s 10-yard line) but the 49ers were also without receiver/running/back/whatever-he-wants-to-be Deebo Samuel and were playing their third starting quarterback of the season. Seattle won’t be so lucky against a Chiefs offense that scores against everyone.

Beyond the Kansas City game, however, are games against the Jets and the Rams. New York’s defense is good enough by itself to defeat a Lockett-less Seahawks’ offense. The Rams, even in an extremely weakened state in Week 13, nearly beat Seattle. Seattle could easily lose their last three games and maybe should be expected to.

But let’s do a quick review. Remember what this team was expected to do before the season? 6 wins…maybe. Yes, they did start 6-3 and re-set every 12s dream hopes for what 2022 could be, but the team was playing over their head a bit.

I saw one Facebook post after Thursday’s game that called this Seattle team “pathetic.” That comment is pathetic. Even if this team finishes 7-10, that’s better than most thought would happen. And Seattle has abundant draft capital and cap room to make 2023 much better. This team is on the upswing whether it looks that way right now or not.