General manager John Schneider has been busy in recent days trying to remedy a very bad salary cap position. The release of Dre’Mont Jones, Rayshawn Jenkins, George Fant, and Roy Robertson-Harris were all expected as the Seattle Seahawks attempt to create a little bit of room to move once free agency begins on March 12.
Wednesday’s twin announcements that Tyler Lockett was being released and that DK Metcalf was on the trading block made the reality of the Seahawks’ situation very clear.
One of the deals Schneider is rumored to want is the re-signing of linebacker Ernest Jones IV. Jones was acquired mid-season in a deal that sent Jerome Baker and a fourth-round draft pick to the Tennessee Titans. His arrival seemed to solidify a defense that had been struggling mightily.
Things could get expensive for the Seattle Seahawks to sign Ernest Jones IV
Jones showed up a few weeks before Seattle’s bye, when Mike Macdonald’s crew was in the midst of losing five out of six games. When the new linebacker got settled in after the bye week, the Seahawks won four straight, giving up just 16 points per game in that stretch. In the first post-bye contest, San Francisco, who had hung 36 on Macdonald’s defense a few weeks earlier, managed to score just 17 points.
Jones is in the final year of his rookie deal that pays him a little over one million dollars per season. It has been apparent for some time that he would be getting a significant raise in 2025. It seems logical that Schneider and Macdonald would want to lock him up before he hits free agency next week. The outlines of any potential deal may have become a bit clearer after the Eagles re-signed their own free agent, Zack Baun, on Wednesday.
Baun was one of the biggest success stories in the league in 2024. He went from being a special teamer with the Saints in 2023 to being an All-Pro linebacker with the Eagles. Philly rewarded him with a new contract – a three-year deal totaling 51 million dollars. $34 million is reportedly guaranteed.
Jones was never going to get Zack Baun money. He doesn’t make plays behind the line at the same rate as Baun. But he has proven to be a tackling machine, totaling close to 300 tackles in the past two seasons, despite playing for three different teams in that span.
Prior to the Baun deal, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) was projecting a new contract for the Eagles’ star would be somewhere around three years/45 million dollars. The Eagles ended up going about 12 percent above that number.
PFF has been projecting a deal for Jones that would come in at about $36 million over three years. That suggests it might take $41 million to re-sign Jones for three years, with about $27 million guaranteed.
For context, that single-season average is about what Schneider shelled out for Baker and Tyrel Dodson last offseason. Of course, neither of those linebackers lasted a full year with the Seahawks.
Hopefully, if Seattle is able to work out a deal with Jones prior to free agency, he will contribute far more over the next several years. Also of note, Jones is going to have offseason knee surgery, which could lower his market value, but that also appears to be a precautionary procedure instead of a long-term problem.
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