Seahawks trade for Roy Robertson-Harris who only amplifies Seattle's struggles

Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider clearly wants to try to help the team get better. He is not afraid of making a trade in hopes of doing so. He has pulled off many since the preseason. Not all of them have worked out very well. His latest move is also unlikely to help the team.

Seattle's defense struggles at tackling, a problem that has been extremely evident over the last three games. More frustrating is that new head coach Mike Macdonald was supposed to help fix that ongoing problem from the Pete Carroll years. Instead, the Seahawks struggle in the same areas they did with Carroll: They cannot tackle, and they can't stop the run.

In order to help Macdonald fix those issues, Schneider traded for Jacksonville Jaguars defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris on Monday. Robertson-Harris has been in the league for eight seasons and has proven to be an inconsistent pass rusher and inconsistent run-stopper. One thing he is terrible at is tackling.

Seahawks make useless trade in adding defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris

In his career, he has missed 17.4 percent of his tackle attempts. That is an atrocious number for a defensive lineman. In comparison, Leonard Williams has missed 11.0 percent of his career tackle attempts. In 2024, Robertson-Harris has missed an unbelievable 44.4 percent of his tackle attempts.

In 2023, he was in on 34 tackles, but he missed 10 others. That means he missed nearly 24 percent of his tackle attempts. What makes Schneider think the defensive lineman can suddenly fix his career-long problem is anyone's guess. Perhaps he sees Robertson-Harris as a great fit in Mike Macdonald's defense.

12s cannot fully trust Schneider's approach to that, however. In the preseason, Seattle traded edge rusher Darrell Taylor to the Chicago Bears, cornerback Mike Jackson to the Carolina Panthers, and brought in edge rusher Trevis Gipson from the Jaguars. Arguably, none of those moves has paid off.

Taylor has been missed because of the Seahawks' injuries among edge rushers this season. Gipson has only one total quarterback pressure this season and has missed on his only tackle attempt. Tre Brown has been terrible as Seattle's third cornerback with Jackson gone.

Robertson-Harris appears to also not help Seattle much. At least the team only gave up a sixth-round draft pick to add him. Maybe Schneider just hates sixth-round picks because he seems to have given that pick away for a player who won't improve the team.

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