What the Seattle Seahawks are getting as a D-line trade addition

The Seattle Seahawks have struggled to defend their run so far in 2024, and they addressed that issue on Monday by completing a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars for veteran defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris.

The Seahawks are trading a veteran defensive lineman to the Jaguars

The move, which was the first trade of the regular season, was the start of a busy few days for the NFL transaction executive as the Nov. 5 trade deadline is just three weeks away.

What will the Hawks get in Robertson-Harris? Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy met with JP Shadrick, a Jaguars reporter and NFL broadcaster, on Tuesday to get the news.

“Big, strong guy,” Shadrick said of the 31-year-old Robertson-Harris. “He’s a defensive tackle by profession. This year he’s played a lot more inside, in the last few weeks they’ve kind of pushed him out. He started (his NFL career) in Chicago, they liked him enough to keep him around a few more years, and then the Jaguars liked him enough to give him another contract. He was a big part of what they tried to do on defense, but there were some changes here.”

This last part opens the door to examining the possible reason Robertson-Harris was available on the trade market for a late-round 2026 NFL Draft pick. The Jaguars switched from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 formation this year, which may have made Robertson-Harris a less good fit for Jacksonville than before when he signed a three-year, $21.6 million contract extension -Dollar signed for the 2023 season.

Stacy Rost of Seattle Sports compared the acquisition to when the Seahawks made a trade with Cincinnati for pass rusher Carlos Dunlap during the 2020 season, as Dunlap’s role with the Bengals had shrunk in a rotation but a big one after his arrival in Seattle had influence.

“They’re still trying to figure out the personnel,” Shadrick said, “and in the long run it might not be a great fit for the Jags. So why not go ahead and get a draft pick?”

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Robertson-Harris has started all 17 games for the Jags over the last two seasons and has two sacks, seven combined tackles, four QB hits and three tackles in four games this year for a defeat.

Cultural change

Shadrick wonders if going from a 1-5 Jaguars team to the 3-3 Seahawks will be a positive move for Robertson-Harris.

“Roy is an interesting personality. I think he will be good for the locker room. He always kind of felt like that guy,” he said. “I have to say there were a few games last week… (and it’s) not just a Roy Robertson-Harris problem, but there were some people who liked to run off the field late and it hasn’t been going lately well, and he could do it I was a little involved in it, whatever – that’s not the reason for this move. I think this is a bigger Jaguar problem than a Roy Robertson-Harris problem. I think he’ll be fine.

“The new environment will probably be good for him and an opportunity with a team that’s hopefully kind of headed in the right direction.” He had some really good years in Chicago in his earlier years and wasn’t able to repeat that week-to-week in Jacksonville. But like I said, if you change all those plans from year to year, (the Jaguars) have a new defensive coordinator this year and everything changes, then maybe it’s just not what they had in mind when they originally signed him .”

Listen to Bump and Stacy’s full conversation with Jaguars broadcaster JP Shadrick on the podcast at this link or in the player at the top of this post. Catch Bump and Stacy live weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Seattle Sports and find podcasts for each show here or by subscribing on your favorite podcast app.

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