Seahawks general manager John Schneider confirmed Thursday that receiver DK Metcalf has requested a trade and said Seattle has already received inquiries from “a ton of teams.’’
Schneider made the comments — the first by anyone with the team since Metcalf’s trade request — during his weekly appearance on Seattle Sports 710.
“Everything is in a very cordial, professional place,’’ Schneider said. “Obviously DK has requested a trade and we are entertaining that. We are talking to a ton of teams, taking offers, seeing what that looks like, and, yeah, here we go.’’
Schneider did not go into detail about why the 27-year-old star receiver wants out.
But he noted that Metcalf remains under contract through the 2025 season and insisted there is a chance that Metcalf stays with Seattle this year.
“The thing to understand here is that our responsibility (to team chair) Jody Allen, the 12s, first and foremost, is doing what is absolutely best for the organization, A, and then B, what’s best for the player,’’ Schneider said. “Hopefully both those things merge and it’s an ideal situation. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t. Hopefully in this situation it does — that’d be great. But worst-case scenario we have an amazing, explosive, powerful athlete playing receiver for us again in 2025. So we’ll see where this goes.’’
Schneider said that if a trade is made, it would ideally happen by the time of the NFL draft April 24-26.
“You definitely want to know what’s going on before draft time because he’s such an important part of our team, the organization, the offensive philosophy that these guys want to move forward with on our new coaching staff — we want to know how we are going to compensate for his loss if he is not with us,’’ Schneider said.
Schneider reiterated he is confident that if a trade is not worked out, that Metcalf and the Seahawks could work together in 2025.
“DK is a very good communicator,’’ Schneider said. “He’s a guy that understands the business, he’s a businessman himself. I think he understands that we are going to head down this road, he understands that we are going to do what’s best for the organization, and that if things don’t fall the way he may want that there’s a good chance he could end up being here. So at that point, we all turn the corner and move forward, so that’s the way it works. Through this whole process, he has been extremely professional and respectful.
“ … We have a new offensive staff, they are extremely excited about coaching him. We have obliged in the fact that we will go out and listen to people and see what’s out there for him. Other than that, the guys here are really excited to coach him and move forward.’’
Schneider insisted there are no hard feelings between the team and Metcalf, who, according to a report from ESPN, wants to play for a contender.
“I get where he’s coming from to a certain extent,’’ Schneider said. “He’s 27 years old, he has very high expectations for himself and he should. So, no harm, no foul. We’ll get through this. This too shall pass, they say.’’
Still, Schneider acknowledged the team would have preferred that the Metcalf news had not been leaked Wednesday, just about a half-hour after the team announced the release of Tyler Lockett.
Lockett tweeted his goodbye to Seattle at 9:35 a.m. with the team sending it out a few minutes later, with the first report of the Metcalf news breaking at 10:13 a.m.
The team had intentionally not included Lockett when it announced four other cuts on Tuesday, hoping Wednesday would be devoted to celebrating Lockett’s career.
“Yeah, probably not intentional but very disappointed in the timing,’’ Schneider said. “We wanted this to be a very special day, we wanted it to be Tyler Lockett Day. We’ve had cap casualties, very famous, extremely important legends that have been cap-casualty individuals that we probably could have handled a little bit different in the past. So we wanted to handle Tyler’s situation as classy as we possibly could, so yeah, we were all very excited to have this really nice day for Tyler to celebrate Tyler. Yeah, I’d be lying — I felt bad for Tyler. You put (on the) TVs, (it’s) all about DK instead of Tyler Lockett.’’
Door not closed on Lockett, Jones deal could get done soon
Schneider also said the door remains open for Lockett to return as he assesses what the market is for his services for next season. Schneider compared it to a year ago when he said Seattle also left the door open for tight end Will Dissly and safeties Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs when they were released the week before the free-agent signing period.
“We did it with Diss and Jamal and Diggsy last year, like, ‘Hey, go out, see what’s shaking and we’ll just stay in touch and see where it goes,’’’ Schneider said. “So (we) had that conversation with Tyler yesterday.’’
None of Dissly, Diggs or Adams re-signed with Seattle, however, and Schneider said he expects that Lockett will be desired on the open market.
“I do think Tyler is going to have strong interest because he’s such a strong leader and still a very productive player,’’ Schneider said. In fact, speculation has already begun that Lockett could reunite with former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll with the Raiders in Las Vegas.
Schneider said the team told Lockett a month ago or so he would be released and made it official this week.
Schneider said the team had a Zoom meeting with Lockett on Wednesday to finalize the process.
“I don’t think he had a tear, but I had a little tear,’’ Schneider said.
Schneider also confirmed that middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who can become an unrestricted free agent next week, had surgery on his knee following the season.
Schneider called it just “a little cleanup’’ and that it was “not much of a big deal.’’
Schneider said Jones has remained in the area working out with Seahawks trainers as talks continue on a new contract.
“He’s here getting ready and we continue to have conversations with his representatives, and hopefully we can knock this out pretty soon,’’ Schneider said.
Seahawks re-sign cornerback Jobe
Seattle took care of one piece of business Thursday, re-signing cornerback Josh Jobe. Jobe was set to become a restricted free agent.
Terms of the deal were not immediately revealed.
Jobe signed as a free agent in late August and began the regular season on the practice squad before injuries opened the door for him to emerge as the third cornerback, moving ahead of Tre Brown on the depth chart, behind Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen.
Jobe started six games and played in 10 overall, making 37 tackles with one interception against Buffalo.
Brown is set to be an unrestricted free agent. But Woolen and Witherspoon are under contract for 2025 and so is Jobe now, giving Seattle a set cornerback trio entering the offseason.