Seahawks buck trend, give Dre'Mont Jones bucks

Jones gets three years, $51 million and Pete Carroll gets an interior pass rush presence, 3/13/2023

The Seattle Seahawks finally did it. They locked down a player on the first day of free agency and Pete Carroll is making good on his word to address Seattle’s greatest weakness on defense—while simultaneously continuing to torture the Denver Broncos organization: The Seahawks are signing former Broncos defensive tackle Dre’Mont Jones to a three-year, $51 million contract.

NFL @NFL

Seahawks signing DT Dre’mont Jones to a 3-year, $51M deal. (via @RapSheet, @JamesPalmerTV)

As I wrote on Sunday, we should always read contracts as being realistically shorter and less expensive than the reported amount of years and money. However, at three years, Jones should be on the Seahawks for at least two of those and generally the goal here is that he plays well enough to get an extension in 2025.

Given Jones’ age (26), production (6.5 sacks in only 13 games last season), and consistency (he’s had at least five sacks in each of the last three years) there’s a better than average chance that he will make good on the first two-thirds of this new contract.

The deal reads as an incredible $17 million per season—Poona Ford was Seattle’s highest cap hit in 2022 at $10 million—and that puts Jones in a tie with Arik Armstead for the 10th-highest interior defensive lineman in the NFL. More likely, this comes down close to a $35-$36 million guarantee (I’ll update when I see the update) and locks in Jones for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

He’s a major upgrade from who the Seahawks had at the position last season.

Frankie Abbott @FrankiesFilm

Give Dre'mont Jones as much money as he wants.

Jones finished last season on IR with a hip injury, but he was also thought to be Denver’s most likely “franchise tag” player. Instead, the Broncos signed Zach Allen off of the Arizona Cardinals, a move that was met with mixed reviews. I mention this only because many of you have probably heard it or will hear it, but PFF rates Allen as a much better player than Jones.

It’s important to note how often PFF’s ranking systems are useless.

No…meritless.

This also doesn’t mean that Dre’Mont Jones is going to be a singular answer to the Seahawks’ defensive issues in 2022 or that Pete and John didn’t feel they had to “overpay” to address one of the biggest weaknesses for any team in the NFL. The Seahawks have long lacked an interior pass rushing threat and they ranked 25th against the run by DVOA.

The Jones signing—and we must assume that Seattle could have even asked for Jones in the Russell Wilson trade, only to accept Shelby Harris as a consolation prize—is a hopeful and optimistic move. He’s 26, his playing time has increased in three successive seasons, and Pete has a history of getting the most out of defensive lineman and pass rushers once they get to the Seahawks.

This is just an unusually high price to pay for Pete and John. They don’t tend to do this. They also haven’t had a good defense in a long time, so maybe they should have done this.

Jones, who spent three years at Ohio State behind and around the likes of Joey Bosa, Nick Bosa, and Chase Young, broke out as a senior in year four with 13 tackles for a loss and 8.5 sacks, topped only by Young. The thought was that the production never matched the potential, until year four, and that he would need to continue to add muscle to his frame to have success at the next level. As a third round pick, Jones was exceeding expectations early in his career and he’s been well above those expectations over the past three.

It’s just a matter of staying on the field—Jones also missed three games in 2020 and one game in 2021—but he has only been blamed for three missed tackles over four seasons, with 76 solo tackles and 57 assisted tackles. Jones has 22 sacks, 38 QB hits, and 28 TFL in 56 career games.

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And Seahawks get to give out one more assist on Monday: Thank you Geno Smith for that favorable contract to stay in Seattle on a $10 million cap hit and avoid the franchise tag. You wanted to help the team get bet around you and on Monday, Pete and John held up their part of the bargain that this time they would at least try.