Tag: Leonard Williams trade

Leonard Williams is least to blame for Seahawks’ issues since the trade

The Seattle Seahawks gave up a lot to obtain defensive end Leonard Williams from the New York Giants.

The Seattle Seahawks gave up a lot to obtain defensive end Leonard Williams from the New York Giants. As part of the deal, they sent their 2024 second-round draft pick, plus a fifth-round pick in 2025.

Williams is a special player, though. One can argue whether or not Seattle gave up too much draft capital to land him, but now that they have him it would probably be the wrong move to let him go. Williams will be on the wrong side of 30 years old next season. However, he’s also been the team’s best defender and most-consistent performer overall since the trade went down.

In the six games that Williams has played in a Seahawks uniform, they’ve gone 1-5. Williams has balled out, though – racking up 18 total tackles, three sacks, four tackles for a loss, eight quarterback hits and 10 pressures. The numbers themselves are impressive, but given the context they are magnificent, as Williams has faced a high rate of double teams since arriving in Seattle.

Williams’ impact is the single biggest reason why the pass rush has performed relatively well despite the team’s recent losing streak. There are major problems on defense, but they’re related to scheme, poor tackling and bad coverage on the back end.

Seattle can still get a high comp pick if they let Williams go, but at this point we’d prefer to re-sign him rather than try to find the next Leonard Williams in the draft. The defensive line is where they should be spending their resources, anyway.

Jarran Reed and Dre’Mont Jones have also played at a respectable level this season. However, in order to get past teams with great pass rushers like the 49ers the bar has to be set extraordinarily high. John Schneider may have to be more aggressive than ever to match the defensive lines this team needs to beat to get back to the Super Bowl.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Ranking all 32 NFL teams by playoff probability

NFL power rankings Week 15: Bills back in top five

Jets were willing to eat money in Le’Veon Bell trade, but injury guarantee scared teams

The Jets were reportedly willing to eat money in a potential Le’Veon Bell trade, but teams were scared off by an injury gurnatee for 2021.

As they did in the Leonard Williams trade last season, the Jets were willing to eat money in a potential Le’Veon Bell trade. Even with that, opposing teams shied away from making a deal with Gang Green because of Bell’s injury guarantee for the 2021 season, according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini.

Bell was cut on Tuesday night.

The Jets tried desperately to trade Bell this week after his frustrations reached a boiling following New York’s 30-10 loss to Arizona in Week 5. Bell returned to the lineup after missing three games with a hamstring injury. He had 13 carries for 60 yards, but just one catch on one target in the passing game. That didn’t sit well with him.

Bell refused to speak with the media after the conclusion of Sunday’s game. Instead, he went on Twitter and liked tweets that suggested he was being used improperly and that the Jets should trade him.

While Joe Douglas made his best last-ditch efforts to trade the former All-Pro back, Cimini reports that the biggest deterrent for teams was Bell’s $8 million injury guarantee in 2021, not his remaining $6 million 2020 base salary.

Bell has clearly lost a step and has dealt with various lower-body injuries since signing with the Jets in 2019. It’s understandable why a team wouldn’t want to trade an asset for such a risk. The Jets likely would have had to attach a draft pick, much akin to the Texans shipping Brock Osweiler and his $16 million guaranteed salary with a second-round pick to the Browns in 2017.

Given how poorly structured the Jets roster is, there was no way Douglas was going to part with a valuable asset. The Jets found no takers for Bell, so they eventually opted to release him on Tuesday. His release leaves behind $15 million in dead cap for the 2020 season and another $4 million in 2021, per Spotrac.

Bell will now likely sign with a contender who won’t have to worry about an injury guarantee next season.

2020 NFL draft: Jets take OL with first pick in Matt Miller’s latest mock

Matt Miller of Bleacher Report has released his post-regular season mock draft, check out to see who Miller has the Jets picking throughout.

With the regular season coming to a close on Sunday, mock draft season has already begun. With the order for non-playoff teams set, Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller released his post-regular season mock draft on Monday.

The Jets are locked into the 11th pick with the top-20 of the draft order officially set in stone.

In the first round, Miller has the Jets addressing their glaring hole on the offensive line. From there, they fill out their roster with playmakers that would have a chance to contribute right away.

Let’s take a look and see who Miller has the Jets taking in his three-round, post-regular season mock draft.

First Round: Jedrick Willis Jr. | OT | Alabama

(Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports)

Fixing the offensive line must be a priority this offseason.

With Joe Douglas’ first draft pick as the team’s general manager, Matt Miller has Douglas seeking immediate help in the trenches by taking Jedrick Willis Jr., an offensive tackle out of Alabama.

Here’s Miller’s explanation for the pick:

The New York Jets should be smiling all the way to the podium when the card is sent in with my top-ranked offensive tackle coming off the board to protect Sam Darnold.

Darnold, when protected well this year, showed all the tools to be a very good starting NFL quarterback. The trouble was that he was rarely well-protected as the Jets’ offensive line was ravaged by injury.

Drafting Wills, who was tasked with protecting Tua Tagovailoa’s blind side as the Alabama right tackle, gives the Jets a Week 1 answer at left tackle. His movement skills are the best of any tackle in the 2020 class, and his technique is pro-ready.

Receiver is a huge need, as is edge-rusher, but protecting Darnold has to be the top priority for general manager Joe Douglas in his first draft.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

Ex-Jet Leonard Williams has been a Giant disappointment

Since being traded to the Giants from the Jets, Leonard Williams’ production on the field hasn’t changed.

If you thought a change of scenery would help rejuvenate Leonard Williams, think again.

Williams has played in four games with the Giants since the Jets traded him for a 2020 third-round pick and a 2021 fifth-round pick. However, his play on the field hasn’t changed much since going from Gang Green to Big Blue.

Williams has racked up a total of 10 combined tackles, seven quarterback hits and zero sacks since joining the Giants. That’s just as many sacks as he had this year for the Jets, and only a few more quarterback hits. That number has slightly improved from five with the Jets to seven with the Giants, but four of those came against the Jets’ putrid offensive line when the MetLife Stadium roommates played two weeks after Williams was traded.

Williams has always been able to get close to the quarterback, but rarely does he finish the job and register a sack. We saw this in his time with the Jets. In his final two and a half seasons with Gang Green, Williams had 57 quarterback hits, but only seven sacks.

When the Giants decided to trade for him, it shocked the rest of the league. Not only were the Giants out of the playoff race, but he’s a free agent at the end of the season. Previous reports indicated that the Giants intend to sign him to an extension before the start of next season, otherwise the trade would end up being pointless. However, his performance throughout the 2019 season says he doesn’t deserve a massive payday.

Williams came out of USC in 2015 and was declared a can’t miss prospect, but it hasn’t worked out as many expected. His first two seasons with the Jets were impressive when he recorded 10 sacks 65 tackles and made a Pro Bowl, but the last three years have been a struggle.

It’s still too early to say that the Jets won this deal because Williams will likely be back with the Giants next season, so he has a chance to get better. Be that as it may, if Williams continues to put up numbers like these then it’s clear as day that the Jets got the better end of the deal.