Jan 5, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Seattle Seahawks Wide Receiver Tyler Lockett (16) runs down the field baseline at SoFi Stadium for the Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams Week 18 matchup. Mandatory Credit: William Navarro-Imagn Images | William Navarro-Imagn Images

Unless the Patriots manage to swing a big-time trade for Tee Higgins, he’s not coming to New England given the Bengals recently slapped the franchise tag on him. That proved to be sour news for Patriots fans wanting to see New England splurge for Higgins in free agency.

Plenty of talented targets, such as Tampa Bay’s Chris Godwin, remain out there. We all know New England will have to overpay for top-tier pass catchers, given the Patriots’ 8-26 record over the last two seasons, but having a franchise quarterback in place and an established head coach makes New England a more attractive destination than it was last offseason.

A recent release of one of the league’s top pass-catchers over the last decade could prove to be good news for the Patriots if they can’t land someone like Godwin in free agency or Travis Hunter in the draft.

Could Tyler Lockett be a “wild-card” attraction for the Patriots?

Lockett is an under-the-radar guy who wasn’t talked about much in terms of who teams needing wide receiver talent would look for. But with his recent release by the Seahawks, is he a guy the Patriots could swoop in and grab with a relatively cheap contract?

Even though Lockett is coming off the least productive season of his career, he has been one of the league’s most consistent pass-catchers (661 catches, 8,594 yards, 61 touchdowns) during his 10-year run in Seattle.

Lockett has four 1,000-yard seasons to his credit, and while he’s 32 years old, he’s one of those veteran guys who would be a viable addition to a young Patriots’ locker room.

He’s a guy who has turned into a face on a milk carton in Seattle’s wide receiver room the last few years thanks to the emergence of D.K. Metcalf and Jaxson Smith-Njigba, and the Seahawks saved themselves quite a bit of money ($17 million) by cutting Lockett. Seattle has also given Metcalf permission to request a trade so he can be on his way out of Emerald City.

Lockett may not be the splashy receiver the likes of Metcalf, Higgins, Godwin or even A.J. Brown would represent, but he’s a guy worth kicking the tires on. He has no intention of retiring and likely still has a few years left in his gas tank, so why not give him a relatively cheap two-year type of deal? Lockett certainly represents a low-risk high-reward type of deal, so Eliot Wolf and Mike Vrabel should certainly give him a call.