Linebacker Ernest Jones after his inteerception, stops on defense led Seahawks past Houston Texans 27-19 at Lumen Field in Seattle Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. By Gregg Bell/The News Tribune
Ernest Jones grew up watching Bobby Wagner play his position in the middle of the defense.
The Seahawks’ NFL-best, Super Bowl-champion defense of more than 11 years ago.
“I know everything about him,” the 25-year-old Jones said Thursday, in the hallway of Seahawks headquarters following practice.
So Seattle’s middle linebacker knows Wagner is now 35 1/2 years old and a future Hall of Fame linebacker. Wagner is in his 14th NFL season, and second with his former Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s Washington Commanders.
Jones knows Wagner has played 99% of the defensive snaps in his two seasons for the Commanders. He knows Wagner has played almost 14,000 regular-season snaps in his career that began as Seattle’s second-round draft choice from Utah State back in Barack Obama’s first term as president. That was in 2012.
“I’m in awe of him being able to do that,” Jones, a fifth-year pro, said of Wagner’s productivity and longevity at perhaps the sport’s most violent position.
“This game is physical. This position is physical. I know how hard I attack each and every game, and I know he’s the same way.
“So 14 years of that on your body and you’re still out balling, that’s testament to him and the work he’s put in.” That work includes hot yoga. Wagner has been a regular for years at a studio on Seattle’s eastside, just up I-405 north of Seahawks headquarters.
Wagner’s decade and a half of NFL work continues Sunday night when his Commanders (3-5) host Jones’ NFC West-leading Seahawks (5-2) in Landover, Maryland (5:20 p.m., NBC, KING-5 locally).
“It’s gonna be big,” Wagner told reporters in Kansas City following Washington’s third consecutive loss, Monday night to the Chiefs.
“But I think every game is big. You don’t want to dig yourself in a deeper hole.”
Linebacker Bobby Wagner of the Washington Commanders during an NFL game against the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on September 29, 2024. The Commanders defeated Arizona 42-14. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) Christian Petersen Getty Images
Bobby Wagner’s still going
This is Wagner’s third-ever game against Seattle. You might think this is the last time Wagner will play against the Seahawks. You might have thought his second go-round with them, in 2023, would have been his final season.
His production and play suggest you are wrong.
He is second in the league in tackles. He just played 100% of Washington’s defensive snaps, all 69, as the middle linebacker smashing into blockers and ball carriers yet again in the Commanders’ loss to the Chiefs.
In that game, he got his 14th career interception. It came on a pass from Patrick Mahomes off the hands of Travis Kelce and into Wagner’s. That made Wagner the first player in league history to intercept Mahomes and Tom Brady.
In Quinn, Wagner has a coach who appears ready to have him as his defensive signal-caller as long as Wagner wants to play. He is playing on a second consecutive one-year contract Washington has given him, after 10 seasons with the Seahawks, one as Jones’ teammate with the Rams and the one more, return year back in Seattle.
Jones’ second NFL season with the Rams was Wagner’s only year playing for Los Angeles, 2022. Jones was coming off being the Rams’ defensive signal-caller on a Super Bowl-champion team as a rookie. He said he was the ultimate pupil watching and listening Wagner in L.A. in 2022.
What did Wagner teach him?
“Just some of everything,” Jones said. “Just kind of how to take care of your body, study, film, how to lead. What type of leadership qualities you can add to your what you already have.” Jones said Wagner showed him tricks to use his hands more to ward off blockers. And he showed him how to dissect film more efficiently, by better knowing what to look for to determine an offense’s tendencies.
Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp was another of Wagner’s teammates on that 2022 Rams team. Kupp agreed with Jones on Wagner’s biggest strength that year.
And all years.
“I learned he’s a tremendous leader,” Kupp said.
“I learned that the tremendous leaders don’t have to be the ones that are always up in front talking. I probably did a great job of just find the balance of modeling what it’s supposed to look like with his process. He’s obviously playing at a high level for a long time now. But modeling his processing and then also being able to find the times to share a word when it’s on his heart, that something needs to be said and not shying away from that.
“You could tell he was a special football player — and a special human being.”
Kupp is a voracious studier of the intricacies inside the defenses he and Seattle’s offense face each week. What’s he found about Wagner’s directing of and play for the Commanders?
“I think he does a great job of communicating within the box (in the middle near the line of scrimmage) of what he’s seeing and trying to allow guys to play fast,” Kupp said. “His anticipation ability to be in the right spots...he’s one of the best at it. You’ve just seen that over and over throughout his career, and somehow he finds a way of being at the point of attack, over and over and over again.
“That’s something he’s continuing to do. And you see him communicate with the guys whether he’s with the D-Line, linebackers and safeties when they’re in the fits and things like that. He has those guys on point.”
Mike Macdonald was in awe of Bobby Wagner, too
Wagner played his first 10 NFL seasons plus his lone year of his second Seattle go-round for coach Pete Carroll.
Current Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald replaced the fired Carroll 3 1/2 weeks after Wagner’s final game for the Seahawks in January 2024.
Macdonald came much closer to coaching Wagner two years before.
Macdonald was Baltimore’s first-year defensive coordinator in the spring of 2022, after Carroll and Seahawks general manager John Schneider chose not to offer Wagner a new contract. Wagner made a free-agent visit to the Ravens.
Macdonald, three years older than Wagner, was like Jones. In awe.
“There’s a kind of gravitas to him. It’s Bobby Wagner, and he’s coming in for a visit,” Macdonald, 38, said this week. “I was a first-year coordinator, so I didn’t do a lot of talking.
“I just let him talk.”
What does Macdonald remember about what Wagner, a lifelong West Coaster and native of Ontario, California, east of Los Angeles, told him and the Ravens?
“It’s what you expected in terms of just the person and the poise,” Macdonald said. “And we were excited for the opportunity.”
Wagner ultimately said no to the Ravens to sign with his hometown Rams.
“I think it was going to be a big move going to the East Coast. Or at least you thought that at the time, maybe not a few years later when he goes to Washington.
“It was a great visit. We’ve got a ton of respect for him. I was hoping it was going to work out.”
Macdonald ultimately got his Wagner— in position and role, at least — for the Seahawks last year. He and Schneider traded to acquire Jones in the middle of the 2024 season. It transformed Seattle’s defense into one of the league’s better, and at times this season, best.
Macdonald remains wholly impressed by Wagner still producing in year 14 at the ultra-physical, ultra-demanding middle-linebacker spot.
“I think you’re speaking to his resume, which is probably rivaled by maybe a couple other people in the history of the game. It’s probably as big of a compliment as I can give him,” Macdonald said.
“To me, it’s his meticulous attention to detail, maniacal way to prepare for games. It takes a lot. It’s a toll on your body. It’s probably the most impressive thing, honestly. His mind is obviously as sharp as ever. But to be able to still play all those plays is really impressive.”
Jones feels that toll on his body in the same position Wagner does. Could he imagine 10 years from now, at Wagner’s current age, still slamming into running backs, tight ends, centers, tackles and guards 60-plus times each week for 14 seasons — and counting?
“I’d love to,” Jones said. “I’m blessed to continue to play this game. And, you know, once I get up in age, in terms of football, I’d love to be doing it.”
Seattle Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones (13) looks on during the fourth quarter of the game against the New Orleans Saints at Lumen Field, on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025 in Seattle. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com