Revisiting Seahawks' trades for Leonard Williams, Ernest Jones IV: Duo powered Seattle's Super Bowl D
Mike Macdonald made no bones about building the Seahawks in his image. Yes, Pete Carroll had been in Seattle for more than a dozen years and built a powerhouse that won one Super Bowl and made another. But Macdonald wasn't going to just keep the status quo, nor was he going to try to build Ravens 2.0 out on the West Coast, even if he had experienced tremendous success as the Ravens defensive coordinator. The Seahawks' 2026 Super Bowl triumph, in Macdonald's second season, came from being bold. In Macdonald's first year, the Seahawks went 10-7 and just missed the playoffs — by all accounts, a good football team and a solid start to Macdonald's tenure. Macdonald didn't see it that way. He fired Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator and brought in Klint Kubiak. Shortly before free agency began, the Seahawks released Tyler Lockett , and D.K. Metcalf requested a trade on the same day. Not only did the Seahawks trade Metcalf to the Steelers , but they also sent Geno Smith to the Raiders . It was going to be a new offense, one built more in line with how Macdonald envisioned that side of the ball. In came Sam Darnold , up stepped Jaxon Smith-Njigba , and on came the Super Bowl rings earlier this year. But the Seahawks' championship was more powered by a truly dominant defense — Macdonald's side of the ball — and to see how two key figures of that unit came to be, we have to go back to two trades: one made right before Macdonald arrived, another shortly after. Ahead of the Seahawks' "Sunday Night Football" matchup with the Chiefs , we look back on how Seattle came away with absolute steals in acquiring defensive lineman Leonard Williams and linebacker Ernest Jones . Oct. 30, 2023: With the Giants 2-6 in late October, they were looking to sell at the deadline. The 5-2 Seahawks were looking to buy, especially at pass rusher after Uchenna Nwosu's injury. Williams was in the final year of a three-year, $63 milion extension, and with the Giants having extended Dexter Lawrence the previous offseason, it looked unlikely they would also hand out a hefty deal to Williams, who was 30 at the time. The two teams consummated a deal, with the Giants taking on most of the remaining money on the agreement. After the season, even though Carroll had moved on and Macdonald had arrived, Williams remained a priority for Seattle. The Seahawks signed him to a three-year, $64.5 million deal as free agency began. Oct. 23, 2024: This was the second trade in two whirlwind months for Jones. After playing an integral role for the Super Bowl-champion Rams as a rookie in 2021, he ascended to a starter in his second season and made 15 starts in his third year. But Jones and Los Angeles couldn't come to an extension after his third season, so the Rams shipped him and a sixth-round pick to the Titans for a fifth-round pick just before the start of the 2024 season. But the Titans were a mess to start the season (and all season, frankly, finishing 3-14 and earning the No. 1 pick). At 1-5, they traded DeAndre Hopkins to the Chiefs and, later that day, sent Jones to the Seahawks. After losing Jordyn Brooks and Bobby Wagner in free agency, Seattle had tried to fortify its linebacking corps with Baker and Tyrel Dodson on one-year deals, but it simply wasn't working out. The Titans got a linebacker to help finish out the season, plus a pick to build for the future in return. Seattle, it turned out, had unearthed a star for the second trade deadline in as many years. Playing alongside 2024 first-round pick Byron Murphy , Williams was already making a big impact early in the 2024 season: 2.5 sacks, 12 quarterback hits through six weeks. But the Seahawks defense was pretty middling overall and downright bad in some spots, including 28th in yards per carry allowed. Macdonald was Baltimore's defensive coordinator when the Ravens acquired Roquan Smith from the Bears midseason. He knew a good linebacker could shape a defense, and while Jones wasn't Smith, Macdonald clear [... truncated ...]
