The Seattle Seahawks made a trade on Monday to bring defensive lineman Leonard Williams to Seattle. In return for Williams, Seattle gave New York a second-round choice in 2024 and a fifth-round pick in 2025. Will the trade work out for Seattle? Time will tell, of course.
But most of the trades that general manager John Schneider has made since he became Seattle's GM in 2010 have worked out pretty well. A lot of the trades he's done were made during different drafts and for draft picks. As getting draft capital is great but the player Seattle will get isn't known yet, I am not including any of those kinds of trades on the list that follows.
Hopefully, if we do this same kind of article in a few years the Leonard Williams trade makes the list.
Seattle Seahawks best trade under GM John Schneider No. 5 - Carlos Dunlap (2020)
Seattle traded B.J. Finney and a 2021 seventh-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals for Dunlap.
Prior to Dunlap being added midway through the 2020 season, Seattle's defense was a mess that could get no pressure on the quarterback. Seattle still found a way to begin the season 5-1 before adding Dunlap. He then had 1.5 sacks in his first game, though it was a Seattle loss. But after defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. figured out - temporarily, as it turns out - how to best use Dunlap, Seattle's pass rush got much better and the team finished the season 6-1 in the games Dunlap played.
He finished the 2020 season with 5 sacks and 14 quarterback hits in just eight games with Seattle. The following offseason, Seattle allowed Dunlap to find work elsewhere (that was part of the stipulation when Dunlap agreed to be traded to the Seahawks), but he ended up returning for 2021.
Sadly, Dunlap was ill-used in Norton, Jr.'s scheme and he was dropped far too many times into coverage early in the year. He did get moved back to a more traditional defensive end role in Week 13, though, and Dunlap finished by getting 8 sacks in his last six games. He was a good player with Seattle but would have been better had he been used better.
Seattle also didn't have to give up much for adding Dunlap so any production he added was a plus. He didn't help get Seattle a Super Bowl victory, but Seattle still got good value in the trade.
Best trade No. 4 - Jadeveon Clowney (2019)
Seattle gave up two players to the Houston Texans and a 2020 third-round pick for Clowney.
Seattle might have won this trade because of one single game Clowney had in 2019. In an NFC West fight for first place, the Seahawks played the San Francisco 49ers in Week 10 and Seattle won 27-24. Clowney at times appeared to be playing one on 10 against the 49ers blockers and winning. He finished the game with 5 quarterback hits, 5 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery which he picked up and ran for 10 yards.
Clowney didn't put up huge sack numbers in 2019 as he only finished with 3. But he did have 13 quarterback hits in 13 games, forced 4 fumbles, recovered 2 fumbles and had an interception that he returned for a touchdown. He also had 1.5 sacks in two playoff games and 3 tackles for loss.
Pro Football Focus (subscription required) gave Clowney an elite 87.3 grade for 2019 and he finished with 48 total pressures. He left in free agency after the season, however.
The players Seattle gave to the Houston Texans for Clowney were Jacob Martin and Bakevious Mingo. Martin has bounced around the league since 2021 and hasn't started a game since then either. The draft pick Seattle gave Houston turned out to be tight end Devin Asiasi, but he never played for Houston and hasn't played anywhere in 2023.
Best trade No. 3 - Duane Brown (2017)
The Seahawks traded a 2018 third-round and 2019 second-round picks to the Houston Texans for Duane Brown and a fifth-round choice in 2018.
Duane Brown might arguably be the second-best left tackle in Seahawks history. He's no Walter Jones, of course, but Brown has a decent chance of making the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day. He spent 10 years with Houston before coming to Seattle so he will likely be better remembered as being a Texan, but he still made the Pro Bowl twice in five years with the Seahawks.
He didn't make the Pro Bowl in 2018, but he was named second-team All-Pro and that's probably a better mark of his excellence. That year he allowed only 2 quarterback hits and 21 total pressures. In 2019, Brown allowed just 1 sack and 2 quarterback hits. In an elite-level 2020, he had just two penalties and allowed 5 quarterback hits and 2 sacks. He was a fantastic left tackle for Seattle.
The draft picks Seattle gave to Houston for Brown turned out to be Martinas Rankin and Lonnie Johnson. Johnson played three years for Houston and left after 2021. Rankin has been out of the league since 2020. Seattle chose Shaquem Griffin with the pick they got from the Texans.
Best trade No. 2 - Marshawn Lynch (2010)
The Seahawks traded a 2011 fourth-round pick and a 2012 fifth-round pick to the Buffalo Bills for Marshawn Lynch.
This is a no-brainer, right? I'll get what the Bills ended up getting out of the way first. With the draft choices that Buffalo got they chose Chris Hairston in 2011 and Tank Carder in 2012. Carder never played for the Bills but he did play five years with the Browns. Left tackle Hairston played three years with the Bills and was out of the league after six seasons.
Meanwhile, Lynch greatly helped change the culture in Seattle. He added a ferocious mentality to an offense that wasn't at all scary before Lynch arrived. In his first season in Seattle, he didn't have a 100-yard game in the regular season but he had three games with 75-yards-plus. That changed in the playoffs, however, when Lynch ran for 131 yards against the New Orleans Saints in Seattle's shocking Wild Card victory. That was the game, of course, that featured Beast Mode 1.0.
Lynch played parts of seven years with Seattle, won a Super Bowl, and should have been part of a second Super Bowl team. Twice he led the league in rushing touchdowns (2013 and 2014) and had four years with at least 1,204 yards rushing. He was a Pro Bowler from 2011 through 2014 and was a first-team All-Pro in 2012.
Lynch is fourth all-time in Seahawks history in rushing yards (6,381), second in touchdown runs (55), and second in rushing yards-per-game (76.9).
Best trade No. 1 - The Russell Wilson trade (2022)
Seattle gave the Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson and a fourth-round choice for Drew Lock, Shelby Harris, Noah Fant, a 2022 first-round choice, 2022 second-round pick, 2022 fifth-round pick, 2023 first-round choice, and 2023 second-round pick. Whew.
Goodness, that is a lot of players involved in the trade. And this is a trade that the Seahawks have used to remake their team and the post-Wilson roster is younger and better than the Wilson-era teams. Giving up Wilson was a bit of a shock to 12s at the time, but looking back after just a year-and-a-half the deal seems like Seattle completely fleeced Denver.
Wilson has mostly struggled with the Broncos since the beginning of 2022, though Denver has played a bit better lately. But Seattle had the better team in 2022, this year, and likely for several years to come. Wilson might not even be with Denver in a couple of seasons even though they signed him to a massive deal after the trade.
Meanwhile, two of the players Seattle got in the deal - Lock and Harris - have either already left the team or don't play. But Fant has been a pretty decent receiving weapon for quarterback Geno Smith. Fant should probably be used even more than he is.
But the players Seattle picked up through the draft - left tackle Charles Cross, edge rusher Boye Mafe, edge rusher Derick Hall, and cornerback Devon Witherspoon - are foundational pieces for a potential championship team. Seattle wouldn't be where they currently are without trading Wilson and the team will most likely be better off in five years because of the Wilson trade as well.