The Seahawks’ Week 1 trip to New England will put them right in front of one of John Schneider’s rare misfires: Dre’Mont Jones.
Schneider has built a reputation as one of the league’s best general managers, and his track record backs that up. He’s the only GM to oversee two different versions of a team winning a Super Bowl, even if those rosters and coaching staffs looked nothing alike. But the Jones signing stands out as a miss.
In 2023, Seattle handed Jones the biggest external free-agent deal Schneider had ever given out: three years, with a maximum value of $51.5 million. It never came close to paying off. Jones was released before last year’s free-agency window opened after two quiet seasons in Seattle.
He bounced around in 2025, spending time with the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens before landing with the Patriots, who now bring him into Week 1 against his former team. Jones actually put together a career-high seven sacks this year, with 4.5 of them coming in Tennessee. He was less productive over the same nine-game span with Baltimore.
Even with that sack total, Jones has still looked more like a useful piece than a difference-maker. He wasn’t a clean fit in Seattle under Pete Carroll in 2023 or Mike Macdonald in 2024, and his best stretches there felt more accidental than system-driven.
Now he’s set to start for a Patriots team still searching for the right edge-rush rotation. If Jones is one of New England’s better answers off the edge, Sam Darnold should have room to work and enough time to push Seattle’s offense forward.
There is also the possibility that Jones comes in with extra juice against the team that moved on from him before its Super Bowl run. Seahawks fans probably won’t mind if he gets that kind of revenge only in flashes. Seattle has Leonard Williams, Derick Hall and DeMarcus Lawrence on the defensive line and at edge, and all three are better options than Jones.
He might make a play or two and feel like he proved something. But one game won’t rewrite the bigger picture. The Seahawks look better without him, and Jones still profiles as the same middling player Seattle thought it was getting.
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For a team that leans on communication and depth in the secondary, any limitation at safety this early is worth monitoring closely. The first practice week always comes with a little caution, but Seattles initial report offered a reminder that the opening game plan could depend on how quickly Okada and Emmanwori can get right. Across the field, New England had its own concerns, with defensive tackle Christian Barmore and running back TreVeyon Henderson both missing practice because of injuries. [Read more 🡒]
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Vrabel has kept the focus on football in recent public comments, declining to address the report directly during a press conference and steering the conversation back to the matchup ahead. But the unresolved questions around the episode still hang over a game that should have been about the Seahawks measuring themselves against a new-look Patriots team, making this opener feel a little less like a clean start and a little more like a story with another chapter still to come. [Read more 🡒]