Tyler Lockett identifies one area of improvement for Seahawks passing game

The Seattle Seahawks passing attack figures to be one of the team’s strengths heading into the 2023 season. Last season they were 8th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA rankings, spearheaded by Geno Smith, DK Metcalf, and Tyler Lockett. Add in first-round wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, plus , and there’s plenty of reason to be excited about what this group can accomplish.

But there’s always room for improvement, and the Seahawks have a few weak spots that need to be addressed. Honestly, you’ve already figured out what I’m talking about and I should just cut to the chase.

When asked by The Athletic’s Michael Shawn-Dugar about improvements for 2023, star wide receiver Lockett went into detail about the screen game and how it impacts other parts of the offense.

“I think we were last in the screen game,” Lockett said. “If we can be able to get that down to at least 20, it does wonders. The biggest thing is for us just knowing how to be able to be better at it. How to know how to catch it, how to be able to get upfield, trusting that the line is going to be there. Everybody being able to do their part. If we can get better at that, then it makes the offensive game better, it makes the run game better, the explosive game better, the short game better.

“But if we don’t have the screen game, then we’ve kind of become limited.”

To my utter amazement and disbelief all at once, the Seahawks were not the absolute worst screen team in the NFL. According to Dugar, Seattle was 30th in screen yards per attempt at 4.1, and they topped out at 136 total screen yards (also 30th). One asterisk with this stat is the 30-yard end-of-half screen against the prevent defense of the Arizona Cardinals.

If you take a more advanced stats approach, the Seahawks offense had the worst success rate on screens and the defense was the worst at defending them.

It may get tiresome hammering home the same point, but now one of the best players on the team is echoing our sentiments. Get better at screens! You don’t have to turn into the Kansas City Chiefs or San Francisco 49ers overnight, but finding other ways to generate passing yards without a deep depth of target would be so beneficial for the offense as a whole.