The Seattle Seahawks need Ernest Jones IV back. He might have only played a half of season with the team, but his addition midway through the 2024 season helped get the defense close to where head coach Mike Macdonald wanted it. Missing out on Jones means starting over at linebacker, and did not prove to be a good thing at the beginning of this past season for the Seahawks.
Maybe second-year linebacker Tyrice Knight will be even better in 2025, and while he performed better than initial expectations, there is no guarantee he is a long-term answer as a starter. Jones certainly is. Plus, Jones is only 26 years old and could be a part of Seattle's defense through 2029. But how much will it cost Seattle?
The issue is not that Jones isn't worth re-signing. He most definitely is. He finished with 138 tackles this past season and was quite good in coverage. The question is money. Seattle doesn't have any currently. The Denver Broncos do and Denver needs a good linebacker, too.
One Broncos expert believes Ernest Jones IV will leave the Seahawks for Denver
In fact, Lou Scataglia of FanSided's Predominantly Orange predicts that instead of re-upping with Seattle, Jones will go to Denver. Scataglia writes, "I have a feeling the Denver Broncos are going to be throwing a handsome free agency contract to free agent inside linebacker Ernest Jones IV...Denver has to make a splash (at linebacker), and I would truly be shocked if we did not see one in free agency this year."
How rude of Scataglia to dismiss any connection Jones has with Seattle and to discard any thought the linebacker might return to the Seahawks. Of course, Scataglia knows the Broncos well, and he could easily be correct about where Jones ends up.
Whereas the Seahawks are currently over the projected cap space by nearly $7 million, according to Over the Cap, the Broncos have a quarterback on a rookie deal for the next three years and $41,776,255 to spend this offseason. That is plenty of money in which to sign Jones. If Seattle were to get into a bidding war for the services of the linebacker, the Seahawks would lose.
The hope, of course, is that Seattle built up enough goodwill with Jones that he wants to come back to the team for the next several seasons. Maybe money isn't everything. Plus, several Seahawks players, including Tyler Lockett, recently supported Jones after he implied someone had called him a "locker room cancer." Maybe that will help Seattle as well. No matter what, Jones needs to be back.