Seahawks create cap space by restructuring Tyler Lockett’s contract

With the Seattle Seahawks a little strapped for available salary cap space, the team has opted to do a little restructuring.

ESPN’s Field Yates reported on Thursday that wide receiver Tyler Lockett, whose contract expires at the end of the 2025 season, has had a little over $8.5 million of his 2023 base salary converted into a signing bonus, which frees up just under $5.7 million in cap space.

Lockett’s base salaries in 2024 and 2025 are $15.3 million apiece.

Obviously one of the offseason storylines for Seattle is their lack of cap space, which Field Gulls’ John Gilbert covered in the lead-up to the NFL Draft. The Seahawks still have eight draft picks to sign, including a pair of first-round picks in Devon Witherspoon and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. According to Seahawks beat reporter Corbin Smith, the math still isn’t quite in Seattle’s favor to have all of its draft picks under contract just off the Lockett restructure.

So while Seattle historically doesn’t do a ton of contract restructuring to kick cap hits down the road, this was a must. And there may be more to come.