RENTON — Tyler Lockett has missed only three regular-season games in his eight-year NFL career. The Seahawks wide receiver made clear Friday he doesn’t intend to miss another, broken hand or not.
“We’re only guaranteed two (more) games until you get something else,’’ Lockett said Friday of Seattle needing to win to get into the playoffs. “I could sit at home in the offseason and get my hand right.”
Lockett said those words standing in front of his locker after he had taken part fully in Seattle’s practice Friday afternoon — and 15 days after he suffered a broken bone in his left hand in a game against the San Francisco 49ers and 12 days after he had surgery in California to fix it.
But, despite being listed as a full participant in practice, Lockett was officially listed as questionable by the Seahawks. And while coach Pete Carroll said Lockett “did quite well’’ in practice this week, he would not commit fully to Lockett playing in what is essentially a must-win game against the New York Jets on Sunday at Lumen Field.
“I want to see how he feels after the work today because he worked again today, practiced, took a full-day practice and did all of that,’’ Carroll said. “We just have to check with him and make sure that he’s OK.”
Still, Lockett seemed to leave little doubt that he will go. Asked if there was any question in his mind if he’s playing, Lockett said it’s not up to him.
“It’s (their) decision,’’ he said. “Sometimes you got to have people protect you from yourself. So they got to find the best way, if I am able to play, just to be able to take care of my hand, make sure my hand is good for them, because to me, I don’t really care as much. So that’s why I got to do what’s in the best interests of me because they’re looking out for me more than me.”
But Lockett said he felt just fine during practices this week. After surgery and rehab last week in the Orange County area, he returned to Seattle this week, and took part in his first practice Wednesday — which he said was the first time he’d caught a pass since the injury. Lockett said the hand got progressively better as the workout went on.
“I feel like it’s just been the same,’’ he said. “I mean, obviously I got surgery, but I think the athletic trainers did a good job padding me up and stuff like that to where I can still go out there and play the same way I’ve been playing.”
So, all of that means you can probably pencil Lockett back into the lineup after he missed last Saturday’s 24-10 loss at Kansas City.
Lockett suffered the injury on the third-to-last play against the 49ers when he fell awkwardly when hit by safety Jimmie Ward while trying to catch a slant pass.
He stayed in the game for Seattle’s final two offensive plays of a drive that ended in a touchdown that cut the score to 21-13 — the 49ers then ran out the last 3:35, during which time Lockett was taken to the locker room to get the hand examined.
“I don’t know if it happened when I dropped it or when I braced for the fall when I got pushed,’’ Lockett said.
But Lockett said it didn’t take long once he got back to the sideline to realize something was wrong.
“I couldn’t move my hand,’’ Lockett said. “My hand was shaped like a C … after that, they then told me it was broke.’’
Lockett said he hoped to avoid surgery but decided to go ahead with it when he was informed that was the only way he’d be able to play again this season.
“They told me if I waited it could probably heal back on its own but it’ll take some time, but if I get surgery there’s a chance you could come back maybe vs. the Jets,’’ he said. “I was like, ‘All right, let’s just go ahead and do that and I’ll just do whatever I can to try to come back and play.’”
Lockett said the surgery involved inserting a plate and 10 screws into his hand to repair what Carroll called a spiral fracture of the first metatarsal. That caused him to miss a game he had sorely wanted to play in at Kansas City, not far from where he went to college at Kansas State, a game that a lot of his family and friends would have attended. Forced to watch on TV, Lockett tweeted throughout, taking issue with both the officiating and analysis.
“I mean, it was tough,’’ he said. “It actually seems like sometimes you listen to people on TV and they’re not fans of us. So, it’s very frustrating listening to people talk about us.’’
Without Lockett, who needs just 36 yards to hit the 1,000-yard mark for the fourth straight season and leads Seattle with eight receiving touchdowns, the Seahawks were held to just 200 net yards passing — their lowest total in the last seven games — and without a touchdown until the final 2:25.
And moving the ball through the air won’t be easy Sunday against a Jets team allowing the fifth-fewest passing yards in the NFL at 195.5 per game, keyed by a pair of standout cornerbacks in former Seahawk D.J. Reed and Ahmad “Sauce’’ Gardner, a favorite to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. But Lockett said if he plans to expect the same kind of production as ever.
“If I’m out there and I’m playing I’m not about to use this as no excuse,’’ he said.