RENTON, Wash. -- Tyler Lockett doesn't like thinking about it much anymore, but he remembers details of the day in Indianapolis when football was almost taken from him.

During medical checks at the combine in 2015, a doctor noticed that there was something different about the 5-foot-10, 182-pound wide receiver. His aorta was on the right side. At the time, Lockett didn't know if that was a big deal, and the doctor did little to ease his concerns.

"That was the first time I heard of it," Lockett said.

"Honestly, if any doctor comes up to you and tells you that there's something wrong, and you ask him what's wrong, and they give you a little explanation, and you say, ‘Well, what does that mean?' and they say, 'If it's this way, you can't play. If it's this way, you can' and walk off, anybody would feel some type of way. So that's exactly what happened to me. I didn't know what was going on or anything."

Lockett's condition was benign, as is usually the case with right-sided aortas. He was cleared to participate in the combine and was a top performer in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle and 60-yard shuttle. The Seattle Seahawks traded up in the third round to draft Lockett, and he earned first-team All-Pro honors as a returner last season. Offensively, Lockett contributed more than the Seahawks expected, as he caught 51 balls for 664 yards and six touchdowns.

But for a brief period of time at the combine, he broke down, and the idea that he might never play a snap in the NFL crept into his mind.

"He was a bit emotional," Lockett's dad, Kevin, said. "He was more scared than anything. And frustrated. Just because making it professionally was a big dream of his. And here he was at literally the final stage of being able to showcase his ability before the actual draft would take place. So his natural reaction was, 'Is this something that is going to kill my dream or scare teams away from allowing me to achieve my dream?'

"So of course it was a scary moment. Any time someone tells you anything like that that's health-related … If he wasn't fine, we'd have never let him play another down of football, regardless of his NFL dream."

Although the pre-draft process began with a scare, it ended with comfort. Kevin had known Seahawks general manager John Schneider for nearly 20 years. Schneider was with the Kansas City Chiefs when the team drafted Kevin in 1997. The two kept in touch and went back and forth leading up to the draft.

"John expressed that they seriously were interested in looking at Tyler," Kevin said. "As a father, I know all of the good and the bad that comes with making it to the NFL, and so once that call came from Seattle, there was a lot of relief on my side."

'They thought I was a third-grader'

Asked if he can remember the first time someone doubted him because of his size, Lockett pointed to the fifth grade.

"I remember they thought I was a third-grader because word on the street was we had a third-grader out on the team, and I was the smallest one out there," Lockett said. "But once they finally gave me the ball and they saw what I could do, everything changed."

As part of their scouting process, the Seahawks look for prospects who have overcome obstacles. Lockett ranked in the eighth percentile compared to other wide receiver prospects when it came to height. He was ninth in weight and fourth in arm length and hand size. Even Lockett's vertical leap was below average.

Like most NFL teams, the Seahawks believe in measurables, but they also believe in compensating factors. For Lockett, there was speed, quickness, football IQ and, most importantly, work ethic.

"At the combine is really where I started to like him," Seahawks wide receivers coach Dave Canales said. "Watching him work, watching him prepare. A lot of the guys finish the 40-yard dash, and they go into that gauntlet, the hands drill. He was the first guy with his gloves and cleats on. He changed his cleats, got his gloves on, grabbed the [equipment] guy, started playing catch. It was five minutes before the next guy went over there. And I was just like, ‘Look at that kid work.' You see it on tape. He's clean. Then he shows up, and everything is just so business-like.

"The interview at the combine, the way that he was talking about his preparation, he couldn't make it up. It was stuff that we don't have time to do here even. But how descriptive he was, you could see the sincerity in his face. He wasn't lying. And you could see it on film -- the routes and the hands and all of that. So that's really where he had become one of our favorites early on. We really fell in love with him then."

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has called Lockett one of the hardest-working players he has had. Lockett goes through a personal pre-practice session on the field every day. Sometimes, he catches balls from the jugs machine. Other days, it's tennis balls or going over his footwork.

"I'm sure I'm not the only person, but I don't want to come out here and catch a punt and I never caught a punt before going into practice," Lockett said. "I'd rather get a couple practices in so I can see how the wind is going and everything before I catch it. I don't want my first catch of the day to be from Russell [Wilson]."

During a conversation about his days at Kansas State, Lockett casually mentioned the number 92. When he was a freshman, Lockett was frustrated by a lack of playing time. He had four catches in the first four games. He thought he deserved more, especially because one of the players ahead of him had missed 92 percent of the preseason workouts. The coaches opted not to redshirt Lockett, but he thought he was doing everything right and couldn't get on the field.

In the sixth game of the season, Kansas State's usual return man was fatigued, so the coaches gave Lockett a chance. He took the kickoff back 100 yards for a touchdown. The next game against Kansas, Lockett got another opportunity. That time, it was a 97-yard touchdown return.

"Regardless of how you feel or what you feel about being able to play more, you won't play more unless you take advantage of the little opportunities that you have," Lockett said. "If you're not ready when your name is called, then you're going to go back to where you started."

Because of his last name, Lockett faced heightened expectations. His dad and uncle were both big-time players at Kansas State. When Kevin's college career was complete, he held school records in receptions, yards and touchdowns. Those marks stood for 18 years, until Kevin's son came along and broke all three of them.

"He went to the same middle school, same high school and same college that I did," Kevin said. "Same middle school, high school and college that his uncle did. And so externally, people have always put this extra pressure on him. But from an internal perspective, I think it's always given him this drive to be really successful. And I think he always saw it as, ‘If I outwork everyone else that's out there, then I'm giving myself the best chance to be successful.' And so, it's something that he's done probably since he was 10 years old."

'Where I'm trying to go, fear can't come'

Maybe it's because he's undersized. Or perhaps it's that Lockett feels he should have been drafted higher. Either way, he owns up to a healthy degree of insecurity.

At times in the past, that insecurity has translated to fear. In high school and college, questions bounced around in his head before games: What if I drop a pass? What if I fumble? What if I cost us a win?

Lockett has worked to block them out and play with fearlessness. It's a process he described on social media earlier this offseason.

A video that I made about fear! Directed and edited by Brian Pan! You have to overcome it! #1Timothy1:7 #SpeakLifehttps://t.co/RjC3hR0nbJ

— Tyler Lockett (@TDLockett12) June 13, 2016

"There's a lot of people who have those thoughts like they forget about their ability, and they just go out there and second-guess everything," Lockett said. "They forget how good they are. They go out there, they're nervous about being able to catch the ball or being able to catch punts or whatever the case may be. And you come to find out that a lot of the things that you fear don't even happen at the end of the day.

"If you have a bad day, you're just going to have a bad day. But you would rather go hard having a bad day than to go out there and be nervous the whole time and have a bad day. You've got to be able to overcome fear because that's one of the biggest things we'll ever have to overcome in life."

Lockett's fearlessness shines through in the way he plays. During a Week 13 game against the Minnesota Vikings last year, he lined up in the slot and ran a vertical route downfield. As Lockett hauled in the 29-yard pass, safety Antone Exum closed and delivered a crushing blow that drew an unnecessary roughness penalty. Not only did Lockett make the catch, but he also sprang back up, spun the ball and clapped his hands.

In Week 11 against the San Francisco 49ers, Lockett caught a slant at the 5, shook one defender off his back and dragged another into the end zone for a touchdown.

"What people don't realize is he played his entire senior season in [high school] basketball with a broken wrist and led them to a state championship and won a state championship while he was the starting point guard," Kevin said. "So there is a level of toughness that exists within him in a small package that people don't see. I think when you put the entire package together, John [Schneider], Pete Carroll, those folks get it now. They understand it. They saw something that other teams didn't see early on, which is why they drafted him. But you put it all together, he may be 5-foot-11 and 182 pounds, but he clearly plays like he's 6-foot-5, 240."

An expanded role in 2016

When Lockett first got to Seattle, wide receiver Doug Baldwin wasn't sure what to expect.

"Usually rookies come in from wherever they were, they were the top dog at their university. Now they are the bottom, and a lot of guys don't handle that well," Baldwin said. "Tyler was very humble when he came in. He had the right mindset, and in our room, we talk about having a dog mentality. There is no job too little. There's no job too great."

Lockett ranked fourth among rookie wide receivers in catches, third in yards and tied for first in touchdowns. He found the end zone twice more as a returner.

Before the draft, some analysts pegged Lockett as a slot receiver, but he showed as a rookie that he can win on the outside. According to ESPN Stats & Information, 418 of Lockett's yards, or 63 percent, came when he was lined up outside. Every day, he has been getting a crash course in beating press coverage by going up against cornerback Richard Sherman.

Also, Lockett spent time putting in extra work with Wilson this offseason. The pair had several near misses on deep balls last year that they want to make sure they convert in 2016.

"He's a legit player for us, and he's right in the middle of all our planning and all of our preparation," Carroll said. "You have to deal with him in our offense. He's going to be moved around to a lot. He'll be in a lot of different spots. He can do everything. We're really pumped about him coming back. He looks so confident, which he always has. We had to make him prove it a little bit. But once we got a hold of the kind of dynamic player that he is, we used the heck out of him, and he's going to get a lot of play time, a lot of stuff happening his way."

Added Baldwin, "He is much more polished of a receiver than I was when I first came in. He's shown the propensity to continue to do that. He has elevated his game. I don't want to say the sky is the limit for him because I don't think he has a limit. As long as he's taking care of his body, he has the work ethic and the talent that is unparalleled."

The work is what Lockett embraces, especially after he was forced to consider a life without football.

"If something's going to be taken away from you, you might as well go hard until it's taken away from you," Lockett said. "You have no say so or no control over what can happen at the end of the day. All I could do is, if they gave me a year to play, then I'd go out there and give it all I've got for a year. If they gave me three years, I'd do the same thing. If they gave me my whole career, then I'm going to go out here my whole career.

"So it just makes you really appreciate what you have. You see how fast it can be taken away from you. And so you don't have time to fear. You don't have time to be afraid. You don't have time to doubt and second-guess yourself because you don't know how long you've got."