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Brady Henderson
RENTON, Wash. — Ernest Jones IV is ready for Mike Macdonald to repay a guess they made in April.
Macdonald, the Seattle Seahawks‘ head coach, and his fifth-year center linebacker made a pleasant wager when the workforce introduced in Nick Emmanwori — the Seahawks’ second-round draft choose — for a predraft go to.
As Macdonald was planning to satisfy with the previous South Carolina security in his workplace that day, he enlisted Jones to affix them, figuring the presence of a fellow former Gamecock would put the prospect’s thoughts comfortable.
However the query was: Would Emmanwori acknowledge who Jones was?
“I am glad he did,” Jones mentioned. “He did know who I used to be, and so I gained that guess.”
That was among the many few introductions the Seahawks wanted on protection this offseason.
Whereas a lot shall be new for an offense that was remodeled over the offseason, all the things from the scheme to the teaching employees and a lot of the personnel would be the identical on protection. That continuity is one cause to assume Seattle’s protection can take a major step ahead in 2025 after ending ninth in factors allowed throughout Macdonald’s debut season.
“Once we got here in at first [last year], it’s a massive playbook, so it is loads to be taught,” defensive deal with Jarran Reed mentioned. “I feel that now, simply banking off of final 12 months, rising what we already know, coming in after which redoing it, it is like studying the identical e book over and over. So now, we get to exit on the sector and simply play quick, and I feel that performs an enormous half into being profitable and executing our performs.”
The Seahawks stored the core of their protection intact by re-signing Reed and Jones earlier than the beginning of free company. In addition they stored cornerback Josh Jobe, a restricted free agent, and introduced again veteran nostril deal with Johnathan Hankins after the draft.
As soon as Hankins returned, 13 of the 16 defenders who performed no less than 300 snaps for Seattle final season have been again within the fold. The three exceptions — linebacker Tyrel Dodson, finish Dre’Mont Jones and security Rayshawn Jenkins — have been both waived or launched.
“I feel it is clearly going that will help you,” defensive coordinator Aden Durde mentioned. “The continuity comes with the understanding of OK, now once we’re going via it, the formation changes, they’re speaking [through] them, they’re anticipating them and so they’re understanding tips on how to play quick. So it is enormous that we have the fellows again.”
Additionally again are all of Macdonald’s and Durde’s key assistants from 2024. This time final 12 months, they have been within the early levels of putting in the complicated protection the pinnacle coach had imported from his time with the Baltimore Ravens. The predictable rising pains with a brand new scheme coupled with some personnel misses in free company contributed to a tough begin for Seattle’s protection, notably towards the run.
That unit allowed 146.1 dashing yards per sport (twenty eighth) over the primary seven weeks. In maybe one of the best illustration of the Seahawks’ defensive enchancment, they lower that quantity to 96.2 (seventh) over the ultimate 9 weeks.
“I feel we got here collectively extra,” Reed mentioned. “I feel on the time we got here in, all people was simply making an attempt to be taught what to do, so all people was form of on the market doing their job. Now, we will go forward and do our job, however we will do it collectively. … Simply so far as simply understanding the performs, we will know the place this individual’s imagined to be or count on what this individual goes to do and we will simply belief it, play with it and go along with it.”
That turnaround was additionally keyed by a number of personnel adjustments, most notably Jones taking on for Dodson in the course of the protection after his arrival through a midseason commerce with the Tennessee Titans.
The mutual admiration between Jones and the group was so obvious that earlier than the season was even over, it was beginning to look like a certainty that the 2 sides would work out a deal to maintain the linebacker in Seattle. When Jones re-signed for three years and $28.5 million, it gave him some long-term stability after a pair of trades final 12 months pressured him to maneuver his household from Los Angeles to Nashville to Seattle within the span of two months.
The deal got here collectively the identical day the Seahawks agreed to re-sign Reed, two main steps towards preserving their protection collectively.
“That is my linebacker,” Reed mentioned of Jones. “I say it each time, like Terrell Owens mentioned, ‘That is my quarterback.’ That is my linebacker. Critically although, he is a fantastic addition, man. He is a fantastic ballplayer, he is very sensible, he is a headhunter … a type of guys that we like on the protection, a bodily participant and sensible.”
Jones took half in organized workforce actions, although he sat out the full-speed workforce durations as he continues to work his manner again from surgical procedure to restore a knee damage that had been bothering him the previous two seasons.
“I am feeling actually good,” Jones mentioned. “I am getting again within the combine proper now with the fellows, so I am excited. … I have never been capable of play my finest ball, whether or not or not it’s the knee or whether or not or not it’s different circumstances. However I am excited for this 12 months, really.”
Emmanwori and veteran finish DeMarcus Lawrence are the one offseason additions anticipated to fill extra than simply depth roles on protection. Nevertheless, the Seahawks nonetheless have roughly $30 million in cap area, which has fueled hypothesis that they may very well be within the combine for a big-name defender on the commerce block.
Trey Hendrickson can be an improve for a pass-rush rotation that has loads of stable choices however no true No. 1. However the Professional Bowler, who’s searching for a brand new deal from the Cincinnati Bengals, would seemingly should be prepared to play out his present contract in Seattle given the Seahawks’ lengthy historical past of not paying commerce acquisitions immediately.
Jalen Ramsey, in the meantime, would deal with maybe their greatest remaining want. However along with the $20 million he is nonetheless owed for 2025, he won’t be a great match for the team-first tradition that Macdonald is making an attempt to instill now that the Seahawks are shifting away from the individualism that former coach Pete Carroll usually welcomed.
That new mindset may need been illustrated by the truth that each participant on the roster confirmed up for no less than one of many six voluntary OTA periods, with nearly everybody attending all six. That is the place Jones and the remainder of the protection continued to construct the continuity that would assist that unit go from good to nice in 2025.
“I feel it is going to be particular,” Jones mentioned. “I am excited. I do not need to give an excessive amount of as a result of we have got to go, after all, put the work in. But when the imaginative and prescient lives as much as what I feel, it is going to be one thing loopy.”
