The least-surprising trade 'permission' in Seahawks history

Rayshawn Jenkins is allowed to seek a new team -- before he gets cut anyway

The Seahawks are “allowing” Rayshawn Jenkins to seek a trade partner, according to Jordan Schultz, the NFL insider who bought all of his sources through his dad Howard, the Starbucks owner who moved the Sonics to Oklahoma.

On Wednesday, the Rams “gave permission” to Jonah Jackson to seek a trade and Seaside Joe thought, “Hmmm, this is so funny to me that these teams are pretending like anyone wants their bad investments,” but it wasn’t enough to warrant its own newsletter on this site.

Jenkins and Jackson are two players on the verge of being released — they are not even close to the only ones — because of how poorly their initial seasons went with their new teams, so GMs are letting it be known that they’re available in the hopes of shooting in the dark and hitting a sucker.

The Seahawks can’t, wouldn’t, and were never going to keep Rayshawn Jenkins in 2025.

The team will save $5.28 million in cap space by releasing or trading Jenkins, with $2.5 million in dead cap left over from his $5 million signing bonus.

The NFL set a salary cap of $279.2 million on Thursday, so this would currently place Seattle at $1.55 million over their allotted cap for 2025.

The Seahawks sign Jenkins as a veteran placeholder until the team could figure out what to do after releasing Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs, but other than a 102-yard fumble return touchdown against the Giants, his season didn’t have many highlights. When Jenkins missed games 7-10 with an injury, Seattle realized that the better safety all along was Coby Bryant.

After Jenkins’ return in Week 12, his playing time decreased from 100% snaps to less than 40% of the snaps.

He’s not going to be the last player “allowed” to seek a trade

The Seahawks will not be able to find a taker for Tyler Lockett, as he’s owed $17 million in 2025. His career has been a bargain, but next season would be a massive overpay.

The Seahawks might like to find a team that would pay Uchenna Nwosu the $6 million bonus that was pushed back from its original deadline as the two sides work on a compromise, but that also seems unlikely.

It’s doubtful that any team, including the Seahawks, is going to pay Dre’Mont Jones a $16 million salary.

Of course, the only two Seahawks who would actually be news if the team allowed them to talk to other teams about a trade:

Geno Smith

DK Metcalf

John Schneider and Mike Macdonald insist this is not a topic of conversation in the building, and they could be telling the truth. But Schneider and Pete Carroll were not telling the truth at the combine three years ago when they both told reporters, at separate times, that Russell Wilson was not available and would be the Seahawks starting quarterback in 2022.

If you believe that Schneider is meeting with Geno’s agent at the combine this week, it is then only rational to believe that the two sides could reach an impasse, just as the Rams have with Matthew Stafford, and that Geno could be allowed to test the market to see if other teams will pay him what he thinks he’s worth.

And Schneider and Macdonald could be speaking on Metcalf as if he’s going to show up to work in the summer without asking for a new contract. If Metcalf decides that it’s time to open up the books again, then the Seahawks really can’t speak to his future with the team yet.

But is Rayshawn Jenkins available for trade? He’s been available since the day he signed. Bet you a cup of Starbucks.

Seaside Joe 2187