GM: Seahawks continuing ‘positive’ talks for a new Ernest Jones deal. What he may get
While the Seahawks are in talks to get the quarterback of their offense a new contract, they are closing on a new deal for the QB of the Mike Macdonald defense, too.
General manager John Schneider said at the NFL scouting combine Tuesday talks remain “positive” toward a new contract for middle linebacker/defensive signal caller Ernest Jones to stay in Seattle.
If they don’t reach an agreement by March 12, Jones would become an unrestricted free agent for the first time, available for any team to sign.
The Seahawks — specifically Macdonald’s defense — can’t afford to let Jones get tempted by any other offers on the open market.
They acquired the 25-year-old thumper and former Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl champion in October in a trade with the Tennessee Titans. Seattle inherited Jones’ rookie contract that ended with the close of the 2024 season.
“We’ve had positive talks with his group ever since we traded for him, and we’ll continue that this week,” Schneider said of Jones’ agents Ira Turner, Ron Butler, Stanley Bien-Aime of the Agency1 Athlete Management Group.
The Seahawks GM spoke to a small group of team beat reporters in a corner of the Indiana Convention Center on Tuesday.
Jones transformed the previously sieve-like Seahawks run defense after he arrived in October. He is the hard-hitting, stout middle linebacker that takes on blockers and drops ball carriers as soon as he hits them that Macdonald’s defensive system demands.
Eleven months ago, Schneider signed free agents Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker to replace departed Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks as Seattle’s inside linebackers. Dodson and Baker were not physical enough to play Macdonald’s style. Both were gone by midseason, and Jones then excelled replacing them.
During the season and immediately following the final game Jan. 5 at the Los Angeles Rams, Jones stated publicly his desire to re-sign with the Seahawks.
He’s said it’s going to happen.
“It’s heading in the right direction, for sure,” Jones said Jan. 5 in the Seahawks’ locker room in Inglewood, California, following the season finale. “We’re going to get it done. I’m going to be a Seahawk. I firmly believe that.”
He’s talked about the mental battle he had moving his wife Tyra and their baby boy, Ernest V, twice in three months, from Los Angeles to Nashville when the Rams traded him to the Titans in late August, and from Tennessee to Seattle in October.
He doesn’t want to move them again.
“Coaches like me. I love it here,” Jones said in January.
“As far as like extension or free agency, I’m just letting my agent handle it, letting the organization handle it.”
Ernest Jones’ likely new salaries
Jones is about to get a massive raise.
He just earned a total of $3.1 million from the Titans and the Seahawks in the final season of his contract in 2024. Seattle paid him only $1.9 million.
That was a bargain with what they got from him. He was Macdonald’s signal caller, run stopper and pass interceptor in the middle of a defense that, after he arrived, went from one of the league’s worst to one of its best the latter half of this season.
The NFL’s top 10 highest-paid middle linebackers range from $20 million per year for Roquan Smith (Macdonald’s former Jones in Baltimore) to $10 million per season for the New York Giants’ Bobby Okereke.
Jones is younger and as accomplished as any of those top 10-paid inside linebackers.
He won a Super Bowl starting for the Rams in the 2021 season. He’s likely to command up to $15 million or more per season to stay with the Seahawks. That would be a 5-times increase from his 2024 salary.
To do that, the team will need to make other moves to get under the NFL’s salary cap for 2025. They must be under by March 12. They are $6.5 million over it right now.
One move that appears increasingly likely: Releasing 32-year-old wide receiver Tyler Lockett after his 10 seasons with the Seahawks. That one decision, as cold as it would be for what Schneider on Tuesday called one of his “all-time favorite” players, would save Seattle $17 million against the cap this year.
In January, Macdonald reiterated the Seahawks want to do what it takes to keep Jones.
“We love him. He’s a great player. And there’s a poise to how he operates, which I respect., the 37-year-old head coach and linebacker guru said. “I think the guy loves football. Those are the guys that do really well here.
“He would do great in a lot of organizations, probably every organization. But I think he’s a great fit here. We love him, and I think he loves it here, too.
“It’s been great so far.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 4:13 PM.
