Seahawks trade for defensive line help
Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Trevis Gipson has spent his first months with the Seahawks trying to find his way — all the way from Jacksonville.
Now the former Jaguars linebacker’s got someone else from North Florida to show around Seattle.
The Seahawks traded Monday for Jacksonville 31-year-old veteran defensive tackle Roy Robertson-Harris. The $22 million defensive lineman was Gipson’s teammate on the Chicago Bears’ defense in 2020, and with the Jaguars. That was, until Seattle traded for Gipson in August.
Now Robertson-Harris is on a defense with Gipson again — the Seahawks’ needy defense.
Seattle will send a sixth-round pick in the 2026 NFL draft to Jacksonville, pending Robertson-Harris passing a Seahawks physical exam. That physical might take a bit to complete. Robertson-Harris was in London on Monday with the Jaguars a day after they lost there to Chicago.
That’s one of the reasons Gipson said following the Seahawks’ practice Monday he’d yet to talk to Robertson-Harris.
“Me and him are so tight, when he gets here it will be like I saw him yesterday,” Gipson said.
“I mean, the type of guy he is? He’s a relentless worker. A family guy. Real down-to-earth. Real respectful guy, but he works hard. He makes sure he takes care of business.
“You know, he shares his experience with younger players — which is a good thing, from the young guys that we have on the front (here in Seattle).”
The Seahawks are getting a veteran defensive lineman at 6 foot 5 and 290 pounds who in his 106-game career has played end and tackle. Those are two positions of need and lack of depth in Seattle, including with rookie first-round pick Byron Murphy missing the last three games injured.
Murphy returned to practice Monday, doing individual position drills but not team work. He injured his hamstring in the second quarter of Seattle’s win over Miami in Week 3, Sept. 22.
That remains the last win for the Seahawks (3-3). They are on a three-game losing streak entering their game Sunday at NFC South co-leader Atlanta (4-2).
Seattle has allowed Detroit, the New York Giants and San Francisco 116, 175 and 228 yards rushing, respectively, through the middle of its defense during the losing streak.
That’s why the Seahawks made the trade for Robertson-Harris.
He played 60% of defensive snaps for each of his first three years with Jacksonville and 50% in six games so far this season.
He’s in his eighth NFL season since Chicago signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Texas-El Paso in 2016. He’s played defensive end with Chicago and Jacksonville, and recently more defensive tackle with the Jaguars.
Jacksonville gave him a three-year, $21.6 million contract with $14 million guaranteed before the 2023 season. The Seahawks are inheriting that deal.
Seattle will pay him a prorated salary for the rest of this season, the final 11 weeks of his $1.7 million base pay, about $94,4000 per regular-season week. His new team also inherits his $400,000 per-game roster bonus this season. Seattle has Robertson-Harris under contract for two more seasons following this one. His scheduled salary-cap charges are $8.9 million for 2025 and $9.1 million for 2026, per overthecap.com.
Gipson said Robertson-Harris has been intent on proving doubters wrong throughout his time in the league.
“He just plays with a chip on the shoulder,” Gipson said. “He’s from a small school, (in) Texas.
“Kid works hard, obviously.”
