Leonard Williams TRADED to Seahawks

We have breaking news from the NFL. The Seattle Seahawks have acquired defensive lineman Leonard Williams in a trade with the New York Giants, our insider Jonathan Jones confirms. In return, the Giants receive a second-round draft pick in 2024 and a fifth-rounder in 2025. A Pro Bowl selection in 2016, Williams has one-and-a-half sacks this season for the Giants who are stuck in last place in the NFC East at 2-6. The NFL trade deadline is tomorrow at 4 p.m. Eastern. And let's bring in our lead NFL insider for more on this. J.J. over the weekend you were reporting that there was a good chance that Williams was going to get dealt. What about him being dealt to the Seahawks? So Seattle obviously feeling very good about themselves contending of course there in the NFC West. They went out there and they got Frank Clark in free agency last week and now adding with Leonard Williams here on the interior of that defensive line. So a nice new piece for Pete Carroll to play with on that defense but you know when it comes to Leonard Williams and the Giants this was something that you could really see from a mile away. He was in the final year of his contract there it was very unlikely that they were going to re-sign him in the offseason. He was an attractive trade candidate because of that but Jeremy you mentioned the one-and-a-half sacks you know those sack numbers have certainly been down this season and his pressure rate has been down. In fact he's generated the least pressure of his entire career so far this year in just five quarterback hits and so he really wasn't doing a lot for the Giants. They felt decent about their depth up front. They wanted to look toward the future of course and getting this second round pick is huge for Big Blue who also of course are going to be eating a lot of his remaining contract for Seattle. So essentially sort of buying up into the second round with that draft pick compensation. I want to ask you about the Giants situation in a second but first what does this deal tell you? Is this a statement of intent from the now NFC West leading Seahawks? I think so and you know there had been some murmurs around the league that the Seahawks would be active around the trade deadline. We talked about it even earlier today before this deal ultimately got done and so the Seahawks are always always aggressive. You'll remember of course a couple of years ago you know making that deal for Jamal Adams an incredibly aggressive deal. They get players from really all walks in undrafted free agency and in free agency throughout the draft. They are always unpredictable of course and so now you have a Seahawks team that with a quarterback in Geno Smith with a manageable contract that they are able to fit a number of pieces in and around both offensively and defensively and so getting Leonard Williams and giving up what they did for Leonard Williams a second round pick and a future fifth certainly indicates that they anticipate signing him to a contract extension. He signed one in 2021 and that was for three years and 63 million dollars that of course coming after a big 11 and a half sack season. My grandma Jeremy used to always tell me if you ever want a big contract go out and have 11 and a half sacks in your contract year. That's what Leonard Williams did and he's set to have another contract soon enough. Yeah Seahawks go to Baltimore this week so Leonard Williams could join up with them certainly going from right coast to left coast but perhaps a stop in Baltimore in between that. All right so talking about the Giants here JJ could this be the start of a Giants fire sale? I mean where do they go from here? I don't get the impression Jeremy that it's going to be a fire sale necessarily with the New York Giants. They've already let it be known around the league and to the man himself Saquon Barkley that they have no intentions on trading him. You look at the rest of the Giants roster and I'm not entirely sure that there's anyone that a whole bunch of teams would be willing to part with draft pick compensation in order to obtain. So you never say never and you know we still have a day until the trade deadline but it seems unlikely that the Giants are going to do anything else of significance before the trade deadline. Obviously they still have hope. They just had Daniel Jones be cleared by the doctors. They expect him to play on Sunday against the Raiders. Hard to imagine this is a team that's going to make the playoffs like they surprised us all last year. However I don't anticipate that this is a fire sale followed by a tanking season for Big Blue. We have a big name being moved a day before the deadline so I mean is there anything to read into this JJ? Could we be in for a busy day on Tuesday ahead of 4 p.m. Eastern? We certainly could. You know look you and I are probably going to be talking a whole lot between now and then Jeremy. When you look at it the Denver Broncos I know Sean Payton came out earlier today and said very definitively we are not shopping anyone and you know that's an interesting phrasing of course. He's saying that we're not out there calling people but we are certainly accepting those calls. The telephone works both ways of course and like the Carolina Panthers could ultimately deal someone like a Dante Jackson or a Terrace Marshall Jr. You could see Josh Uche with the Patriots finding himself somewhere else. The Washington Commanders especially after losing these last two and being winless in the division. We are all around the NFL anticipating when they trade one of Montez Sweat or Chase Young and right now the leading candidate to be traded would be Montez Sweat as it stands right now today. So there will be names of course and then the Minnesota Vikings. Now that they are down a quarterback it's unclear who they're going to play at the quarterback position even this week. But then beyond that if they're going to try to find a veteran out there. If they want to get someone who's currently on a team they have 24-ish hours to go out and find someone. Well and we know JJ you will be all over it. Our lead NFL insider Jonathan Jones joining us here on HQ to discuss big trade between the Giants and the Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams headed to the left coast. All right the NFL today on CBS every Sunday morning getting you all prepped and ready with the latest news and notes and expert analysis and with the trade deadline coming up 4 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday a little bit extra to talk about this coming week.