2025 Seahawks Most Valuable Player Rankings: #3

The second trade was at least to a decent team, and there was a respectable exchange of capital to acquire him, but there was still a sense he was getting passed around because he wasn’t highly thought of. 145 tackles and 4.5 sacks in 2023 just wasn’t enough. Helping the Rams win a super bowl as a rookie in 2021 wasn’t enough.

His play for the remainder of 2024, 94 tackles across 10 games and helping solidify what had been a porous defense previously, was enough to get a contract extension. But even that, a three-year deal worth $28.5 million with the potential to go up to $33 million, wasn’t among the upper echelon at his position. Good, but perhaps not great.

A Fifth Year Ascension

Ernest Jones was more than great in 2025, however. His 126 tackles in just 15 games easily led the team, as did his five interceptions. His generally-accepted biggest weakness from prior seasons, coverage, was largely immaculate, as his understanding of zone drops and ball skills proved to be incredibly valuable to the NFL’s best defense.

Jones wore the green dot for that defense, by the way. Despite missing two games, he earned the first individual accolade of his career in the form of an appearance on the All-Pro second team. He added 25 tackles, an interception, and a forced fumble in the postseason on the way to a second championship. He played his part in a remarkable run defense all season.

Having Your Quarterback’s Back

As great as he was on the field, his most memorable moment of the season may have happened off of it. After the Seahawks fell to 7-3, dropping a tough road game to the Los Angeles Rams on the back of a four interception game by Sam Darnold, Jones wanted everyone to know he was still standing by his quarterback.

He believed in him, he wasn’t going to pin the loss on him, and he had some not so kind words for anyone who had anything else to say. And maybe that all sounds like a generic, empty platitude, the kind of thing that players usually say to the media, but it can’t help but feel like a seminal moment for the 2025 Seahawks, given they didn’t lose again all season.

The Bottom Line

Whether you wanted on-field excellence or off-field leadership, Jones was your man for the Seahawks. It’s hard to imagine any off-ball linebacker providing more value for a team than Ernest did across 2025. He’s another integral part of Seattle’s impossibly good run defense, and is the voice of Mike Macdonald on the field. Hard to beat that.