RENTON — Ernest Jones IV’s first public words to Seattle as a Seahawk?
“Whaassup?”
Actually, a ton the last two months for Jones, the team’s new middle linebacker.
The Super Bowl winner and captain for the Rams 2 1/2 years ago got traded Aug. 27 from Los Angeles, where he started for three seasons, to the Tennessee Titans. That was at the end of this preseason. He was the Titans’ middle linebacker playing nearly every down through six games. Last weekend Jones had five tackles, a hit on quarterback Josh Allen and a pass defensed playing 54 of Tennessee’s 55 defensive snaps in the Titans’ 34-10 loss at Buffalo.
Wednesday, he was finishing team meetings preparing for Tennessee’s game Sunday at Detroit. Titans general manager Ran Carthon summoned Jones to his office.
“They brought me into the room. GM told me I was getting traded to Seattle,” Jones said at Seahawks headquarters Thursday.
“For me, being traded twice, that was a little shocker, at first. But, honestly, I’m thankful for the opportunity that God has given me. I’m getting to come to an organization that wants to win, loves to win — and has got the pieces now to win.
“So I’m excited to add my talents to that.”
It’s not just him he moved on a late-night, five-hour flight from Nashville to Seattle past midnight Thursday morning. His wife and high-school sweetheart Tyra (Jones attended Ware County High in Waycross, Georgia, before he played collegiately at South Carolina), flew with their three-month-old son Ernest V to their new life in the Pacific Northwest.
The Seahawks’ new number 13 is tired of moving.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” he said of joining his third team in two months.
“Just typical for what it’s like to get traded, I guess, once. But you get traded twice.”
With a newborn.
The Seahawks are keeping Jones at middle linebacker. It’s the spot where he impressed Seattle coach Mike Macdonald in February 2022, with his plays for the Rams in Super Bowl 56, their win over the Bengals.
To make room for Jones at “Mike” linebacker, Macdonald is moving Tyrel Dodson, Seattle’s middle linebacker the first seven games, to inside, weakside linebacker. That’s the spot Jerome Baker had, until the Seahawks traded him and a fourth-round draft choice to Tennessee Wednesday to get Jones.
Macdonald had Titans defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson as his defensive backs coach last year when Macdonald was the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator. Macdonald with Seattle and Wilson with Tennessee run similar 3-4 schemes with similar terminology.
Macdonald believes that will smooth Jones’ transition to start for the Seahawks (4-3) Sunday against the Bills (5-2).
“He does a lot of things really well. Talk about making tackles, staying square at the point of attack, he’s physical,” Macdonald said.
“I think he plays really hard. Also a good blitzer as well off the ball. Coverage skills I think are pretty dang good, as well.
“Overall, a really good football player.”
Ernest Jones wants to stay a Seahawk
Hours into his new job in the middle of the first-place Seahawks’ run defense, Jones says he and his family want to make Seattle their home beyond his rookie contract ending with the end of this season.
“I do. I’d love to be in Seattle,” he said. “My wife’s happy. She’s back into where there’s a little city vibe. So she’s happy, I’m good.”
He sounds like a wise husband.
“I’m going to do whatever I can to be on this team for long haul,” he said.
“It’s just a mental battle. Just for me, we have a three-month-old son, so the whole time I just think about my son and my wife,” Jones said. “You know, sitting on that plane Wednesday night I thought) I don’t want to put them through this again.
“I’m ready to go play football, so I can go out here and show not only the Seahawks, but show that I am what I say I am.”
The Seahawks can’t wait for that. They are 28th in the NFL in run defense. They believe Jones at middle linebacker will go a long way to fixing that.
“By all accounts, a great person. Loves ball. Tough as nails,” Macdonald said. “We’re excited to get him here.”
What, in Jones’ words, are the Seahawks getting?
“I’m a dawg. I’m a dawg. That’s what you’re getting,” he said. “Getting a dawg, someone that’s a true leader.
“I’m going to go out there each and every week, put my body on the line for my teammates, for this organization, and my family.”
Bobby Wagner’s shoes
What makes Jones sure of wanting to stay in Seattle so soon?
His former teammate on the Rams has already told him how fantastic living in Seattle is.
Bobby Wagner and Jones played next to each other in the middle of the Rams’ defense in 2022. It was Wagner’s only season for Los Angeles, after Seattle released him.
Now Jones is stepping into the same position on the same team the future Hall of Famer became a six-time All-Pro and Super Bowl champion in Seattle.
Jones and Wagner talked after the Seahawks-Titans trade Wednesday.
Former Seahawks Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs, now with the Titans, also told Jones Wednesday how much he and his family are going to enjoy Seattle.
“Yeah. Him and Quandre, man, they love this place. This is their forever home,” Jones said of Wagner.
“Talking with Bobby, he’s excited. He says I’m going to love it here. And I feel just that way.
“Definitely, Bobby’s one of the greatest in my books. A walking gold jacket right now. So I want to come in, I want to live to that height — and surpass it.”
Surpass Bobby Wagner?
Jones, still just 24, will take his first steps in Wagner’s massive Seahawks shoes Sunday when he starts as Seattle’s new middle linebacker against…Josh Allen and the same Bills he just faced Sunday for the Titans.
And he already notices the Seahawks play his former Rams next week at Lumen Field.
“I’m excited to be on the other side, of another good team, one that’s well-coached,” Jones said. “A lot of players on this team, they want to go hunt.
“So, I fit in well.”
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