Chris Jones would fit Seahawks needs, elevate team into 'Super Bowl' contendors

What are the logistics if Seattle wants to trade Chiefs for All-Pro DT?

Chris Jones turned 29 earlier this month and it was probably sometime during last season that he finally surpassed Aaron Donald as the NFL’s best interior pass rusher. After being named as a second-team All-Pro in 2018, 2020, and 2021, Jones tied career-highs with 15.5 sacks and 29 QB hits, finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and finally took first-team All-Pro. Jones has also been either the second or third-most important player on a team that has won two of the last four Super Bowls.

As unbelievable as it may seem to imagine now, mostly because that’s almost always the case before an elite player gets traded despite how much more common that has become in the last decade, Chris Jones may have also played his last game for the Kansas City Chiefs.

And if we’re going be recent history, Pete Carroll and John Schneider have proven over and over again that they aren’t afraid to be on the receiving end of some of those elite player trades, including in August and September.

For today’s bonus article for Regular Joes, I thought it a perfect opportunity to examine the logistics of a trade for Chris Jones. Could the Seahawks afford him, how likely is it that the Chiefs would trade him, and what would it take to get him? I think this is a great subject for a bonus article because it is definitely more of an intriguing idea for a thought experiment than it is likely to give a glimpse into a future transaction: I believe the odds are heavily in favor of Kansas City finding a way to keep Jones.

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So please don’t take this as me “clickbaiting” you into a subscription and then feeling empty-handed because it may not lead to a real move. However, I do 100% believe that if the Chiefs are taking calls on Jones, that Seattle should be one of the top-five most likely destinations when you add up the variables…

For the organization that has acquired Sheldon Richardson, Jamal Adams, Duane Brown, Jadeveon Clowney, Percy Harvin…and that’s not even a complete picture, only the first five names that came to mind when I thought of players who wanted out because of contract demands…why should we rule out the best player at his position at the biggest position of need for a fringe NFC contender that has a history of headline trades?

The Seahawks and Chris Jones? It’s not as crazy as it sounds.

It was almost a year ago that linebacker Roquan Smith requested a trade from the Chicago Bears and at the time I broke down the logistics of a deal if the Seattle Seahawks wanted to get involved, as Pete Carroll has a history of blockbuster acquisitions and that position was one of the biggest needs. Though the Seahawks did not trade for Smith, the request to get off of the Bears was not smoke and by midseason he was sent to the Baltimore Ravens.

Seattle may have done the right thing to hold onto a second round pick+ and save the salary cap space, but Roquan Smith was also credited as one of the best all-around defensive players in the NFL after he landed with the Ravens: Over the last nine games of the season, the Ravens allowed the second-fewest points in the NFL, only two more points than the San Francisco 49ers. His old team, the Bears, gave up the most points in that period of time.

Over the first eight games prior to the trade, Baltimore and Chicago gave up almost exactly the same number of points.

I am not attempting to credit the entire difference to one player and one trade, but the decision to acquire Smith was risky and yet it seems to be paying off for the Ravens so far. Whether or not the Seahawks would have played significantly better in the second half of 2022 or been able to stop Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy in the wild card game is something we’ll never know.

But the fact that Seattle didn’t trade for Smith, it actually gives them more reason and ammunition to trade for Jones. Who, with absolute certainty, would be a far more appealing acquisition than Smith would have been in 2022.

Let’s go over how much sense it actually makes and what it would take to get Chris Jones. Maybe it’s not as costly or as risky or as impossible as you assume.