On Christmas Eve 2016, Tyler Lockett's right leg bent in an awkward fashion as he was tackled to the ground. The Seattle Seahawks receiver suffered a gruesome broken fibula and tibia.
Four months later, the 24-year-old speedster is completely confident he'll be ready for the start of the 2017 season.
"I mean I'm sure I'll be ready," Lockett told Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times last week. "If I don't it will be news to me like it's news to you.''
When Lockett will return to the practice field remains a question. The receiver said he believes training camp in August is a realistic target.
"I think I'm at a good place right now," Lockett said. "I think that it also depends on what the trainers want to do, whether they want to speed up my process or whether they want to take it slow. It all depends on what they are looking for me to do, if they want me to do [organized team activities] and minicamp or do they want me to just wait until August so for me I'm just preparing myself for August and if I get to do OTAs and stuff then hey, that's cool. But I've got the end goal in mind, which is getting myself ready for camp."
Expect the Seahawks to play it slow with Lockett's return. Even if he's ready by training camp, Seattle could hold him out of preseason games to ensure he's ready Week 1.
If Lockett returns to form, the speedster provides the Seahawks a field-stretching element that complements Doug Baldwin. With Paul Richardson's emergence after Lockett's injury, Seattle enters 2017 with a potentially deep receiver corps for Russell Wilson to exploit -- if he can get any protection this season.
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