MOBILE, Ala. -- For wide receivers as small as Kansas State's Tyler Lockett, one of the biggest adjustments to the NFL game is dealing with jams at the line of scrimmage from cornerbacks playing bump coverage.
But while Lockett measured just 5-foot-9 5/8 and 181 pounds at the Reese's Senior Bowl weigh-in and might appear to be an easy target for bigger cornerbacks looking to play a physical brand at the line of scrimmage, he's seen plenty of it before.
"I saw it every game in college. Out of 70, 80 plays in a game, 95 percent of them I saw press man," Lockett said. "Because teams understood that if they just let me run off the ball, they weren't going to stop me."
They didn't stop him in press coverage, either.
Lockett pulled in 106 passes for the Wildcats for 1,515 yards and 11 touchdowns, all career highs. He was just as dynamic as a punt returner, averaging 19.1 yards on 21 returns.
This week, Lockett has shown a strong ability to get open on shorter routes with his quickness, something a talented cast of Senior Bowl wide receivers hasn't been able to show across the board. He's used to operating in close quarters. NFL Media analyst Bucky Brooks was impressed with Lockett's opening practice Tuesday.
"I was impressed with his stop-start quickness and burst getting out of his breaks," Brooks wrote. "He has a knack for setting defenders up with a little wiggle at the top of routes, and his strong hands stood out when he plucked the ball effortlessly out of the air in drills."
Lockett emphasized that dealing with press coverage is nothing new for him.
"If you look at my film, they press me and play a safety over the top, or they press me and play cover two, they doubled me, they did all that type of stuff. When we played against Auburn, their guy pressed me every play with a safety over the top. When they play off me, that's what's new."
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