A wild Tuesday across the NFL landscape saw the Seattle Seahawks officially begin their rebuild, trading away quarterback Russell Wilson and cutting All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner. The moves don’t appear to be done however, as according to Evan Massey of the NFL Analysis Network, the Seahawks are also checking the market on All-Pro wide receiver Tyler Lockett — a player the Chicago Bears should go get…right now.
Per source, following the #Seahawks trading Russell Wilson to the #Broncos, they are also open for business on wide receiver Tyler Lockett. With plenty of teams needing WR help, he's a name to keep a close eye on.
— Evan Massey (@massey_evan) March 8, 2022
It’s wild to see just what exactly has occurred over the last 24 hours in Seattle, however there’s no bigger need on the Bears’ roster than wide receiver with little behind entrenched starter Darnell Mooney. Lockett would immediately bring a field-stretching presence to the offense, providing Justin Fields with a much-needed weapon.
If Bears GM Ryan Poles does decide to pursue a deal, it won’t come cheap. Lockett is signed through 2026, and is coming off a 73 catch, 1,175 yard season to go along with 8 touchdowns in 2021. A great year by all accounts but it’s status quo for the Kansas State product. Since 2018, the 29-year old receiver has compiled 4,251 receiving yards and 36 touchdowns — that’s the 5th most among all receivers behind Davante Adams, Mike Evans, Tyreek Hill and Adam Thielen.
Any such deal wouldn’t be imminent, however. Due to Lockett’s contract structure, the Seahawks would see now financial benefit in trading away the wide receiver until after June 1, at which point they would save $6.25 million on the 2022 salary cap. The rest of the contract details that you can check out below from Spotrac, also show a pretty significant cap hit that grows to $23.95 million during the 2024 and 2025 seasons — a lot of money to be paying for a 33-year old wide receiver.
The next question becomes what draft or player capital the Bears would have to part with to acquire a player with Lockett’s talent? Chances are, the Seahawks would request a first round pick in return for the receiver, something the Bears could part with in 2023 but would look significantly worse than the current price being paid for the Justin Fields trade that turned into a top 10 draft selection for the New York Giants this year.
Already short on draft picks, it may be tough for the Bears to bring this idea to fruition — but there’s no doubting the immediate impact it would have on the offense. So could we see this new regime at Halas Hall get aggressive in the trade market? Time will tell, but what a hell of a splash it would be.
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