Seahawks trade for Trevis Gipson as Uchenna Nwosu could be out weeks

SEATTLE — The news seemed a little ominous when it came down early Monday morning that the Seattle Seahawks had pulled off a trade with Jacksonville to add outside linebacker Trevis Gipson.

Were the Seahawks adding Gipson because they had gotten some bad news about outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, who suffered a knee injury in Saturday’s preseason finale against Cleveland?

Turns out, they had.

Nwosu will miss “multiple weeks” because of the knee injury, according to the NFL Network and is “a candidate” to begin the season on injured reserve. ESPN reported that Nwosu suffered a sprained MCL and is expected to miss “between two and six weeks.”

Going on IR would mean Nwosu would have to miss at least four games before he could return. In a change in NFL rules this year, teams can place two players on short-term IR before the roster cutdown to 53 who can return after four weeks. In the past, players had to be on the initial 53-man roster and then placed on IR to be eligible to return during the season.

That would mean Nwosu would be out until at least a Week 5 game against the New York Giants on Oct. 6. The Seahawks host the 49ers four days later on a Thursday night, Oct. 10. Returning after the fourth weeks, which is a Monday night game at Detroit, and being ready for two games in five days could be a tough turnaround.

Nwosu was injured on the first series of the game when he was the victim of a cut block by Cleveland’s Wyatt Teller. Teller received a penalty for the block.

Coach Mike Macdonald said after the game that he didn’t want to comment on the play other than to say that it “seemed like an obvious penalty.”

The play means the Seahawks could be without one of their most productive and highest-paid defensive players for at least the first month of the season.

Nwosu signed a three-year, $45 million extension with the team in July, 2023 when he was coming off a 9.5-sack season. The 2024 season is officially the first year of that contract and he has a $7.813 million cap hit this year, sixth-highest on the team.

Nwosu played just six games in 2023 after suffering a torn pectoral muscle that caused him to miss the rest of the year. He had fully recovered from that injury and earned plaudits throughout camp for his play.

But he will be sidelined again to start the season, leaving the Seahawks with some questions about its pass-rushing group.

The Seahawks attempted to answer some of them with the trade for Gipson for a 2025 sixth-round pick.

The Seahawks officially announced the trade Monday, noting that it is pending a physical.

Adding the 6-foot-4, 263-pound Gipson could be insurance in case rush end Dre’Mont Jones is not ready for Week 1.

Not only the Seahawks going to be without Nwosu to start the season but they also have been without rush end Dre’Mont Jones for most of camp because of a lingering hamstring injury.

Jones returned to practice the week of the joint practices in Tennessee before the preseason game in Nashville on Aug. 17, but left one of the practices early and has not been on the field since and did not play in any of the three preseason games.

“It’s looking positive and we’re optimistic with Dre’Mont,” Macdonald said Saturday night. “We’ll see this week how many reps he gets and how we ramp it up.”

The injury to Nwosu came a day after the Seahawks traded another rush end, Darrell Taylor, to the Bears for a sixth-round pick in 2025.

The addition of Gipson will replenish some of the team’s depth, if not serve as a direct replacement for Nwosu. Second-year player Derick Hall figures to start at outside linebacker — strongside linebacker in Macdonald’s defensive scheme — in place off Nwosu with either Jones or Boye Mafe on the other side.

Gipson, 27, had 10 sacks over 19 starts with the Bears in the 2021 and 2022 seasons, including seven in 2021.

Gipson was waived by the Bears before the 2023 season and signed with Tennessee. He played in eight games with Tennessee as a depth and rotational pass rusher, getting one sack, in 2023.

He played two snaps on special teams in the Titans’ Christmas Eve loss to the Seahawks in Nashville and had half a sack and three tackles for the Bears in a game against Seattle at Lumen Field in 2021.

After becoming a free agent, Gipson signed a one-year veteran salary benefit deal worth up to $1.152 million with Jacksonville in March, a deal the Seahawks inherits.

That contract also includes a $100,000 bonus if he is on the 53-man roster week one. Jacksonville paid him $67,500 in bonuses already, so his cap number will be $1.085 million in Seattle.

Taylor had been set to make $3.1 million this season before he was traded to the Bears for a 2025 sixth-round pick, so the Seahawks in essence swapped players while saving about $2 million.

It was not immediately clear if the 2025 pick the Seahawks are giving to Jacksonville is the same as it got from the Bears. They also owns their own sixth-round pick in 2025.

Gipson played 59 snaps in the preseason with the Jaguars, according to Pro Football Focus, with no sacks but four pressures and two hurries, earning a 73.0 pass rush grade.

Gipson, a native of Cedar Hill, Texas, played in college at Tulsa and entered the league as a fifth-round pick of the Bears in 2020.

Jones, Hall, Mafe and Gipson give the Seahawks four rush ends/OLBs who seem certain to begin the year on the 53-man roster.

Rookie Jamie Sheriff became one of the surprises of camp with three sacks in the last two preseason games playing the rush end position. But the Seahawks might view him more as a practice squad player for now.

Teams have to cut their rosters to 53 by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The Seahawks announced one cut Monday morning, waiving cornerback Willie Roberts.