Shore Things: Seahawks make a trade and get Nwosu injury update

Will Mike Macdonald stop playing starters in the preseason following the Uchenna Nwosu injury? Seaside Joe 2004

The Seattle Seahawks must trim the roster to 53 players by Tuesday afternoon and this will be the first time since 2009 that fans have gone through this experience without Pete Carroll. For Carroll’s tenure, the Seahawks were often the very last team to make their final roster announcement official—and often the “final” roster was never the final roster—but how could things change with Mike Macdonald?

Or will they stay the same because John Schneider stayed the same?

You’ll get Macdonald’s final cuts, final roster, and practice squad news e-mailed to you by me as soon as it happens, so be sure to be subscribed to Seaside Joe to not miss any breaking news or updates on that front:

“Shore Things” was a running series last year in which I just touched on a few different points related to the Seahawks. Things that I didn’t want to fit into its own post but could share space with other thoughts and observations I’ve had about the Seattle Seahawks.

Seahawks trade for DL Trevis Gipson

“DL” is the designation I use when people don’t seem to agree if the player is a defensive tackle, a defensive end, or an outside linebacker. Maybe that’s why the Seahawks traded a 2025 sixth round pick (they acquired a 2025 sixth round pick for Darrell Taylor last week) for Trevis Gipson, a 27-year-old “something-in-the-front-seven” who didn’t even play a single snap with the Jaguars after signing with Jacksonville in the offseason.

The first question I always ask in a player trade is: “Why did the original team see him as expendable?”

At least in the Jaguars case it makes a little bit of sense because Jacksonville also signed Arik Armstead in the offseason and he is now working back into the defense after he had missed the first half of training camp on PUP. The Jags defensive line group is deep, it’s the strength of Jacksonville’s defense, and they also used second and fourth round picks on defensive linemen who themselves are buried on the depth chart.

If Gipson was just insurance for Armstead, then it’s potentially Seattle’s gain to get a player at this stage of the offseason who most of the league apparently views as “good enough for the NFL”.

Most guys who don’t make teams at this time of year are not good enough for the NFL.

Though I won’t advise anyone to get their hopes up for Gipson (some film can be watched here), giving up a sixth round pick next year for a player does imply that he’s going to be on the 53-man roster on Tuesday, which I said would probably not be the case for Michael Barrett. Barrett seems like he’d be the type of player who is readily available to replace if he’s cut and claimed, whereas Gipson has NFL experience and was maybe only pushed out of a job because a team had more depth than they expected.

A fifth round pick in 2020, Gipson spent three years with the Bears and tallied seven sacks in former Seattle coach Sean Desai’s defense in 2021. But Chicago waived Gipson at final cuts in 2023, with GM Ryan Poles stating that it was only because he didn’t fit into the 4-3 scheme that came with new head coach Matt Eberflus.

"I don’t think he fell short, I’ll just say that with us, like Ryan touched on, he had his most production in a 34 scheme versus a 4-3," assistant general manager Ian Cunningham echoed. "He did a lot for us, just in terms of the leadership and who he was, showed up every day. We just wanted the best situation for him, and ultimately that was the decision we came to."

Mike Macdonald’s scheme would presumably be the right fit for Gipson and whatever intel the Seahawks pro scouting department had on him, the film must show that he can be Seattle’s insurance for Uchenna Nwosu and Dre’Mont Jones, should they not be ready for Week 1.

Should Macdonald stop playing starters in preseason?

For a lot of people, trading for Gipson has felt like a “confirmation” on Seattle’s part that Nwosu was indeed seriously injured against the Browns on Saturday. This is #77 Wyatt Teller, one of the only starters to play for Cleveland, chopping Nwosu’s legs:

To be fair to Teller, this is a meaningless preseason game with no implications and the only thing wanted by either side is to come out of it healthy so it makes sense that he’d go for Nwosu’s knees in case it meant that the Browns would gain an extra yard or two in a contest that everybody will forget about the second it’s over.

Oh wait, is that “fair”?

Right before this newsletter went out, Schefter reported that Nwosu has a sprained MCL, will miss 2-6 weeks, and this could mean he starts his season on IR.

Artie Burns had to leave the field on a cart, so between these two injuries, should Macdonald re-think playing starters in the preseason in 2025?

Macdonald has often been compared to Sean McVay and as the Rams head coach, McVay did play starters in his first preseason. L.A. had some injuries that year and McVay hasn’t played a starter or an important reserve in the preseason since then, it doesn’t seem to hold the Rams back in the regular season.

(It also doesn’t guarantee that a team won’t suffer injuries: The Rams have had as many pre-Week 1 injuries as any team in the league this year, it seems.)

Personally, I like the idea of letting your starters get their feet wet in the preseason, especially rookies or players getting an increased role because I’m sure there are a lot of nerves that come with playing in the NFL for the first time. But now we have regular joint practices, which seem to be more useful for coaches in terms of evaluating their best players whereas in the preseason, I’d estimate over 90% of it is spent on guys who won’t be starters. Ever.

I’m not against the concept of a two-game preseason, but part of me wishes it wasn’t televised, wasn’t attended, and not even the media could know what happened in the games. But that’s a Shore Things topic for another day.

On the matter of whether Nwosu is out for a long time (Macdonald said he’d have more information on Tuesday) and if that will impact Seattle’s future preseason decisions, who knows? But just one preseason injury like this one is enough for me to remember that I would have been just as happy to not see any Seahawks starters play this month.

CeeDee Lamb’s contract and DK Metcalf’s future

The Cowboys signed Lamb to a four-year, $136 million contract extension on Monday, making him the second-highest paid receiver in the NFL now on an annual salary basis. (Let this be a forever-caveat: Numbers are tricky, so there could be times when I write something like this and it turns out to not be technically accurate, but at least I can say everyone is reporting this as the second-best non-QB deal in history.)

ESPN employee Adam Schefter noted the 11 receiver contracts signed this year and two more could come soon (He also left off $30m/year for Tyreek Hill):

DK Metcalf’s 2022 extension pays him $24 million per season and in barely two years that number looks no good already.

Nine of those receivers (including Hill, not shown) make more than $24 million per season and seven receivers now make at least $28 million per year. If Metcalf sees himself being as good as A.J. Brown, and I’d be shocked if he didn’t think that way, then he’s way, way, way behind his former college teammate now: $8 million per season less.

That means the Eagles value Brown as being worth 33% more than how the Seahawks value Metcalf.

Ja’Marr Chase could sign for even more than Justin Jefferson did and set a new record, while Brandon Aiyuk is expected to seek at least $30 million per season. Even if a team doesn’t pay him that, they’ll pay him almost that.

Every new receiver contract is another reminder to Seattle’s best receiver that he has fallen outside of the top-10 in receiver salaries in less than a few months. This is either going to end up in a new contract or a trade by 2025.

Seahawks could face rookie QBs in first 2 games

We already know that the Seahawks will face Bo Nix, the sixth QB drafted this year, in Week 1. But the chances of the Patriots starting third overall pick Drake Maye over veteran Jacoby Brissett have been getting increasingly better recently, with New England head coach Jerod Mayo telling everyone on Monday that the rookie’s just been better so far.

“This is a true competition, and I would say at this current point, Drake has outplayed Jacoby.”

Even if the Patriots don’t name Maye the starter for Week 1, we’ve seen how these situations can change almost immediately after the season starts. If Brissett even has a bad first half (on arguably the worst team in the NFL) in Week 1, Maye could take over from there.

Now I’m not telling you that facing rookie QBs to start the season is necessarily a good thing; as is usually the case at Seaside Joe, I’m merely observing and reporting. Decide for yourself.

Besides, it’s not like the Broncos are starting Nix over John Elway and the Patriots are starting Maye over Tom Brady. I’d have to say that any team’s defense would be elated to start their season with Jarrett Stidham and Jacoby Brissett. But I’m certainly curious what Mike Macdonald has in store for these rookies…

His defense held the Texans and Chiefs to a combined 27 points in the playoffs last year. If he could make C.J. Stroud and Patrick Mahomes see ghosts, what does he have planned for quarterbacks who have only ever played against college defenses before?

While we’re on the topic of quarterbacks who the Seahawks might face this season: There’s a potential Drew Lock game in Week 5 against the Giants, the potential for Michael Penix, Jr. to start for the Falcons in Week 7 if Kirk Cousins can’t go for some reason, and the last expected rookie to start against Seattle this year would be Caleb Williams in Week 17. That’s a Thursday Night game that could end up having implications for the NFC playoff picture.

Who starts at quarterback is undeniably super important. But one thing that I can guarantee that no Seahawks fan tends to forget is that Seattle has often managed to lose some very important games to some very ‘replaceable’ quarterbacks. It’ll take a combined effort from everybody on the Seahawks to start the season 2-0, not just the ones responsible for containing Bo Nix and Drake Maye.