Seahawks’ new linebacker arrives in town. Here’s how they plan to use him

RENTON, Wash. – New Seahawks middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV said he’ll be just fine if his self-proclaimed “whirlwind” of a past two months finally comes to a stop in Seattle for a while.

Maybe even for the rest of the 24-year-old’s career.

Jones said he was caught off guard when he was pulled aside after a team meeting Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee, and informed he’d been traded by the Titans to the Seahawks. This was the same Tennessee team that acquired him on Aug. 27 from the Los Angeles Rams.

“Being traded twice was a little shocker at first,” Jones said when he talked to Seattle media before his first practice Thursday afternoon. “But honestly, I’m thankful for the opportunity that God has given me, getting to come to an organization that wants to win and loves to win and they’ve got the pieces right now to win. So I’m just excited to add my talent to that.”

The Seahawks plan to play Jones in the middle and move Tyrel Dodson to the weakside to replace Jerome Baker, who was traded to Tennessee as part of the deal along with a 2025 fourth-round pick.

The Titans, at 1-5, appear in full fire-sale mode. Since Jones can be a free agent at the end of the season, the Titans appeared eager to get something for him now in case they didn’t re-sign him.

The Seahawks had long-term uncertainty at linebacker with Baker and Dodson, 26, signing one-year deals in March and the Seahawks deciding after the season whether to re-sign one, or both, or neither.

The Seahawks get Jones, hoping a pairing of him in the middle and Dodson on the weakside can improve the team’s defense in the short-term – especially against the run – and prove to the team to be a viable combo for the long-term.

That Jones is 24 (he turns 25 on Nov. 22) while Baker turns 28 in December also factored into the team’s thinking on the trade.

Jones gets the same tryout period to see how he likes the team and city. Thursday he indicated he has a good feeling about his new home.

Jones and his wife, Tyra, welcomed son Ernest V three months ago, and he said as he boarded the plane Wednesday to come to Seattle he thought, “I don’t want to put them through this again.”

“I’d love to be in Seattle,” Jones said. “My wife’s happy – she’s back in to where there’s a little city vibe. She’s happy, I’m good. And I’m going to do whatever I can to be on this team for the long haul if that’s where they see me fitting in, and from there we work out everything else.”

Dodson said he was fine with moving to the weakside to accommodate Jones.

“Like I told them, ‘I just work here. I’m a team guy,’ ” Dodson said. “… Moving over to the Will position, (you’re still) playing linebacker at the end of the day.”

As Dodson noted, he played the weakside primarily last year for Buffalo – this week’s opponent – starting 10 games and finishing as the highest-rated linebacker in the NFL from Pro Football Focus.

It was that end-of-season performance that enticed the Seahawks to sign him and move him to the middle. Dodson’s grades aren’t quite as sterling this year, though still pretty good – he’s ranked 29th of 83 linebackers this week.

The Seahawks appear to be banking on Dodson proving an even better fit on the weakside, with Jones being a more prototypical physical, run-defending linebacker in the middle.

“I had my best year at this position (weakside) last year in Buffalo, so hopefully have my best year again, so I’m looking forward to that,” Dodson said. “… You’re on the weakside so you get to run a lot of stuff down on the front side, which I love to do. So yeah, I’m excited.”

The hope is that duo will help fix some of the issues that have led to the Seahawks’ run defense ranking 28th allowing 146.1 yards per game.

“You really see his ability to stay square in between the tackles and key the run, throw hands and get on and off blocks,” Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde said after watching Jones in practice Thursday. “It’s cool to see.”

Dodson is expected to keep his role as wearing of the green dot helmet, entrusted with relaying play calls from the coaches to the rest of the defense.

“He’s still communicating,” Durde said. “He’s done it two days in a row now, done a great job.”

Jones is making $3.116 million this season on the final year of his rookie contract, coming into the NFL as a third-round pick of the Rams in 2021 out of South Carolina.

His time with the Rams began as gloriously as could be hoped as he earned a starting spot midway through the year and ended as one of the stars of L.A.’s 23-20 Super Bowl win over Cincinnati, making a sack and seven tackles.

“It’s insane to this day,” he said of accomplishing that at the age of 22. “I can’t even watch the game anymore. because it’s like, ‘Did we win this game?’ ”

Jones hoped to stay with the Rams forever. But with his rookie contract entering its final year and finally able to negotiate an extension with the Rams following the 2023 season, he wanted a long-term commitment from the team. The Rams didn’t want to give it, thought in part because of a general organizational strategy against paying big money to inside, or off-ball, linebackers.

That led to his trade to Tennessee in late August for a swap of 2026 picks (a fifth back to L.A. for a sixth).

The trade to the Seahawks means Jones will get two chances to play the Rams: next Sunday at Lumen, and the final week of the season in early January in L.A.

“That’s the first thing I noticed that y’all didn’t play them (yet), so I get them twice, too,: Jones said. “I’m excited. No bad feelings; no hard feelings there. I just want to go out there and play really good, though.”

First up is Buffalo, a team Jones coincidentally played against last week with Tennessee.

Jones said he had no concern about being ready for the game.

“We get out there on the field today, just run around, mess up a couple of things, and then correct it later and how they want to see it versus what we had in Tennessee,” he said. “And then we’ll go out there, play a game Sunday and figure things out from there.”

Jones is well familiar with the legacy of middle linebackers in Seattle, having played with Bobby Wagner for a year with the Rams in 2022.

He said he hopes Seahawks’ fans someday hold him in the same reverence as they do Wanger.

“Bobby’s one of the greatest in my books,” Jones said. “He’s a walking gold jacket right now, so I want to come in, and I want to live up to that height and surpass it.”