National Football League

Seahawks upgrade pass rush with Leonard Williams, keep him away from 49ers

Published Oct. 30, 2023 5:22 p.m. ET

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Eric Williams

NFC West Writer

It didn't take long for Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll to show they believe their team is a serious Super Bowl contender. 

A day after ascending to the top of the NFC West for the first time this season with a 24-20 victory over the Cleveland Browns, the Seahawks executed a trade for New York Giants defensive lineman Leonard Williams.

According to reports, the Seahawks gave New York a second-round selection in 2024 and a fifth-round pick in 2025 for Williams. The USC product is scheduled to make $9.5 million in 2023, and the Giants will reportedly pick up a large portion of that. Williams will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. 

The Seahawks have eight picks in next year's draft, their own pick in each round and a third-rounder from the Denver Broncos in a trade during the 2023 draft. 

Seattle already brought back former second-round pick Frank Clark last week on a one-year, $1.165 million deal to help replace the team's top edge rusher in Uchenna Nwosu. The 26-year-old Nwosu suffered a torn pectoral and was placed on the season-ending injured reserve last week.

Now, the Seahawks add another player who can push the pocket from the interior in Williams, whom Carroll likely had some intel on from his time coaching the Trojans. 

Williams was selected No. 6 overall in the 2015 draft by the New York Jets and earned Pro Bowl honors in 2016. He moved to the Giants in a 2019 midseason trade for third- and fifth-round picks. 

[Related: Time for a Giant firesale and nobody—including Saquon Barkley—should be off limits]

By landing Williams, the Seahawks also keep him away from their NFC West rivals in the San Francisco 49ers, who have lost three in a row and have just five sacks over the past three games. 

San Francisco executed a similar deal last season by adding running back Christian McCaffrey and keeping him away from the Los Angeles Rams. 

Williams, 29, has 470 combined tackles and 39.5 sacks in 132 games played over nine NFL seasons, including 123 starts. This year, he has 21 combined tackles and 1.5 sacks in eight games, including seven starts. 

According to Next Gen Stats, Williams has generated pressure on 9.6% of his pass rushes this season, down from 11% from 2019 to 2022. He still should add juice to a Seattle interior defensive line rotation that includes Dre'Mont Jones and Jarran Reed.

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.

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