Seahawks release longtime WR Tyler Lockett in cost-cutting move; DK Metcalf asks to be traded

SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks released Tyler Lockett on Wednesday, parting ways with the franchise’s second all-time leading receiver in a cost-cutting move ahead of the new league year.

Also Wednesday, star wide receiver DK Metcalf has requested a trade from Seattle and prefers to be dealt to a contending team, a source told ESPN.

Metcalf, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, made his trade request Wednesday after a series of conversations over the past two weeks, the source told reporter Adam Schefter.

Lockett, a 10-year veteran, caught 661 passes for 8,564 yards and 61 touchdowns in Seattle, trailing only Hall of Famer Steve Largent in all three categories on the team’s career list.

Yet Lockett’s production dipped in each of the past two seasons. He finished with just 894 yards receiving in 2023, a number that fell to just 600 in 2024, his lowest mark since 2017.

Lockett’s salary cap number was scheduled to balloon to more than $30 million in 2025. Cutting him frees up about $17 million in cap space. The 32-year-old Lockett sensed at the end of the 2024 season that it might be his last in Seattle, telling reporters in January that “maybe this isn’t the end, maybe it is the end, but I always will be a Seahawk through and through.”

Seattle has created around $30 million in cap space this week. The Seahawks released four veterans, including outside linebacker Dre’Mont Jones, on Tuesday.

Metcalf, 29, is seeking a new deal as he enters the final year of the three-year, $72 million extension he signed in 2022. He’s set to make a little over $18 million in 2025. Trading him before June 1 would clear nearly $10.9 million in salary cap space but would force the Seahawks to take on $21 million in dead money this season.

Metcalf is coming off a 66-catch, 992-yard, five-touchdown season, having missed two games with a knee injury.

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