The Seattle Seahawks won a championship for the 2025 season because of the team's excellence on defense. The offense was good and efficient. But title-worthy? Not without the defense.
One of the key figures on the latter side of the ball was linebacker Ernest Jones IV, whom the team traded for midway through the 2024 season and who immediately made his unit better. He is the green dot on head coach Mike Macdonald's defense, and he plays at a high level no matter what is being asked of him.
Is he as good as Seahawks legend Bobby Wagner when Wagner was at the height of his career? No, as Wagner is worthy of being a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer. Jones isn't far off Wagner's best, though, and that helps the team win games now.
NFL ranking Bobby Wagner ahead of Seattle Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones is wrong
Jones is currently better than Wagner, however. No offense to the former Washington Commanders linebacker, but he is looking for a new team to play for, while Jones has been with Seattle for a long time for a reason.
He's better in pass coverage than Wagner ever was, too, and that's key. This is all why the NFL listing Wagner at No. 81 among the best current players and Jones at No. 97 is ridiculous.
First of all, only one of the two players heading into 2026 is definitely going to play the sport. Wagner, assuming he still wants to play, should find a new home. Seattle is fortunate to have Jones.
In its reasoning for having Jones far too low on the top-100 list, the NFL site writes nothing as far as a sound reason for his ranking, but only rightfully praises the linebacker.
For Wagner, the site states, "Never out of place, Wagner was credited by Next Gen Stats with 69 run stops in 2025, second in the NFL. He’s as steady of a QB for the defense as there’s been in his (or any) era."
All true, and this isn't about Bobby Wagner suddenly being bad, but he isn't as far or as capable as he once was because he's in his mid-30s. Father Time has never lost. The top-100 is a ranking for the current season. If it were a ranking of the best careers of current players, Wagner should be in the top 10. He's been elite, both as a player and as a human being.
But Ernest Jones, who has six interceptions from his off-ball position in 2026 while Wagner has six total since 2019, is the more important and better player now. Jones is a reason why the Seattle Seahawks are elite. Bobby Wagner is still a free agent.
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