SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks are acquiring linebacker Ernest Jones IV from Tennessee for linebacker Jerome Baker and a 2025 fourth-round pick. A league source has confirmed the trade is expected to happen.
ESPN first broke the news of the deal Wednesday morning.
Baker, a free agent signee in March from Miami, started five games for the Seahawks this season at weakside linebacker.
That spot will go to Jones, a 24-year-old who was a third-round pick of the Rams in 2021.
Jones was traded by L.A. to Tennessee on Aug. 27 along with a 2026 sixth-round pick for a 2026 fifth-round draft pick when the Rams and Jones could not reach agreement on a contract extension.
He is in the final season of his contract, which pays him $3.11 million this season. It is expected the Seahawks will try to keep him. Baker was also due to be a free agent at the end of the season, signing a one-year deal worth up to $7 million with Seattle in March.
Jones, listed at 6 feet 2 and 233 pounds, has started five games for Tennessee this year, making 44 tackles (29 solo).
Tennessee’s defensive coordinator, Dennard Wilson, was the defensive backs coach last year with the Baltimore Ravens working alongside new Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, so Jones is familiar with the defensive scheme.
Baker battled a hamstring injury throughout the of-season and into the regular season, which caused him to miss two games. He had 37 tackles and one sack in five games. He was replaced in the other two by rookie Tyrice Knight, a fourth-round pick out of UTEP.
Baker signed with the Seahawks as part of their plan to remake their inside linebacking corps after deciding not to re-sign the starters from 2023, Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks.
The Seahawks signed free agent Tyrel Dodson of Buffalo to a one-year, $4.26 million deal to take Wagner’s spot in the middle, while Baker was signed to fill Brooks’ role on the weak side.
That means the Seahawks will get some immediate cap savings. They entered the day with $9.535 million in available cap space, according to OvertheCap.com, and they could look to make more moves before the Nov. 5 trade deadline.
The trade appears to leave the Seahawks with eight picks for 2025.
Via OvertheCap.com, Seattle is projected to get three extra picks in 2025 as compensation for the free agents losses of Damien Lewis (fourth), Brooks (fifth) and Wagner (sixth).
Seattle also still has four of its own picks in the first, second, third and seventh rounds.
Along with dealing a fourth for Jones, Seattle also traded a fifth-rounder to the Giants last year as part of the Leonard Williams trade and a sixth-rounder earlier this season for Trevis Gipson. Seattle, though, also got a sixth back from Chicago for Darrell Taylor.
So that appears to leave Seattle with four of its own picks, the Bears’ pick for Taylor and three comp picks. However, the comp picks can change depending on if certain parameters involving the formula for determining them are or are not met, and do not become official until the spring.
The trade for Jones also continues efforts to improve a defense that ranks 21st in total defense, allowing 343.9 yards per game, and 28th in rushing defense, allowing 146.1.
The Seahawks added to its defensive line last week by trading a 2026 sixth-round pick to Jacksonville for defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris.
Jones, who played at South Carolina, started 33 regular-season games in three years with the Rams as well as L.A.’s 23-20 win over Cincinnati in Super Bowl LVI. Jones had seven tackles in that game as well as a sack.
