Report: Seahawks trade Jermaine Kearse to Jets – for massive upgrade to defensive line

For the first time in his life, Jermaine Kearse will not be playing for his hometown team.

What the Seahawks got in trading him could make their renowned defense even more dominant.

Seattle traded Kearse, its homegrown wide receiver from the University of Washington and Lakes High School, on Friday to the New York Jets — and got in return big, often-dominating defensive lineman Sheldon Richardson, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Schefter added Seattle is sending New York its second-round draft choice in 2018 and also are swapping seventh-round picks in a deal that the entire NFL is noticing.

Richardson, 26, was the 2013 NFL defensive rookie of the year then made the 2014 Pro Bowl.

He is what the Seahawks thought they were getting when they used their top draft choice this spring on Malik McDowell: a defensive tackle who can rush the passer as well as stop the run. McDowell is unlikely to play in 2017 following serious injuries in an ATV accident in July.

Richardson’s trade apparently got done after the Seahawks reportedly got wide receiver Doug Baldwin to agree to turn salary money into a signing bonus to save $5.2 million against this year’s salary cap. Richardson is in the final year of his contract, with all of his $8,069,000 salary guaranteed.

Here’s to wishing only the best to Kearse.

Yes, it’s trendy in Seattle to bash him following his sub-par 2016 with just one touchdown catch, a season that Kearse said was “humbling.” But he was a clutch performer for some of the biggest moments in Seahawks’ history. That was after he’d been doubted while playing for UW, then signing with the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2012 and scrapping his way into the league on special teams.

Kearse is a selfless presence in the community in and around his hometown of Lakewood, especially with military families from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. His Jermaine Kearse Foundation: 15 to 1 has for years supported the families whose military servicemen and women have been deployed to war in the Middle East.

I wished him the best last night after talking with him in the locker room following Seattle’s preseason finale at Oakland. He seemed to sense then that could be last time in a Seahawks’ locker room, but was wanting to hear something from the team.

Friday, he did. In a big deal.

This story was originally published September 1, 2017 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Report: Seahawks trade Jermaine Kearse to Jets – for massive upgrade to defensive line."