What the Seahawks cutting Sidney Jones says about their young, crowded cornerback group

Starting experience not needed.

That’s the message the Seahawks have sent all season at cornerback. Sidney Jones got his final word on that Tuesday.

Seattle waived its starting cornerback from 2021. That was after the team failed to trade Jones before the NFL trading deadline came and went Tuesday afternoon.

Jones, 26, has been out of their plans since August. The Seahawks tried to semi-showcase him as a substitute cornerback in parts of three games when he played 12, 22 and 11 snaps into this month. Seattle hoped another team would become attracted to deal for him.

Seattle dealt for Jones in the summer of 2021. The team sent a sixth-round draft choice to Jacksonville before last season. The former University of Washington standout was the Seahawks’ starting cornerback for 11 games in 2021.

He started 10 games on the left side and one start on the right last season. That was when rookie Tre Brown became Seattle’s starter at left cornerback for three games in the middle of the 2021 schedule.

But this season, coach Pete Carroll decided by the first preseason game in early August that rookie Tariq Woolen was the starting right cornerback for this season. That was after Woolen did not allow Seattle’s fastest receivers DK Metcalf and former U.S. track Olympian Marquise Goodwin to beat him on deep routes at all in training camp.

Michael Jackson won the left cornerback job over Jones plus veteran Artie Burns at the end of the preseason. Jackson, a former Seahawks, Cowboys and Patriots practice-squad player, has made the first eight starts of his four-year career the last two months.

Woolen is a candidate for NFL defensive rookie of the year. He is the league’s co-leader with four interceptions, which Woolen got in four consecutive games into late October.

Jackson is coming off the best game of his career last weekend. He had a team-high seven tackles, made multiple stops immediately after catches on third downs and knocked away three passes in Seattle’s 27-13 home win over the previously 6-1 New York Giants.

Brown returned to practice last week for the first time since his season-ending knee injury last November. He had surgery and has been on the physically-unable-to-perform list since the start of training camp in late July.

The team’s second choice in the 2021 draft impressed coaches and teammates flying around the field last week in practices.

The Seahawks training and medical staffs want to see how Brown responds this week to that sudden increase in intensity before they clear him to come off the PUP list and onto the active roster. Carroll said Monday that decision could be coming before first-place Seattle (5-3) plays at last-place division-rival Arizona (3-5) Sunday.

Tre Brown for Michael Jackson’s job?

Carroll, the former defensive back and defensive backs coach, really likes Woolen, Jackson and Brown.

When Carroll has talked about Brown recently, it has sounded as a matter of not if but when Brown will be starting again at cornerback. The coach keeps repeating how well the 5-foot-8 Brown, from Oklahoma, played on receivers and passes in the air in his three starts before his torn patellar tendon last season. He played left cornerback, initially while alternating with Jones last year.

“He was going full speed (in practice last week), but in limited numbers. They will increase his numbers for sure, see how he handles it, and make an assessment at the end of the week,” Carroll said the team’s trainers. “We are not going to rush to get him back after all of the time he has been out, but he looked good last week.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he is pushing at the end of the week to say that he looks like he can play.”

Where?

The 6-foot-4 Woolen, who has run the 40-yard dash in 4.26 seconds, has locked down right cornerback. The fifth-round draft choice is not going anywhere — unless it’s zooming to chase down another receiver and intercept another pass. Carroll has said he’s never seen a man that big run that fast. His teammates call Woolen “Avatar.”

He’s one of five rookie starters for the Seahawks, with running back Kenneth Walker, offensive tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas and nickel defensive back Coby Bryant.

Bryant, drafted one round before Woolen, has played 96% and 72% of the snaps the last two games as the fifth defensive back. He’s been inside against slot receivers and sometimes as a hybrid outside linebacker. Bryant’s been so good Justin Coleman, the veteran the team re-signed before the season, the best nickel back the Seahawks had in a decade before this season, is mothballed on the bench.

Jackson won the left cornerback job out of the preseason primarily because of his tackling. He has been getting a majority of targets from opposing offenses the last few games. Teams have started to avoid Woolen on the other side.

What about Artie Burns?

Burns, 27, has remained an unused backup. He’s made 38 starts in his six-year career for Pittsburgh and Chicago.

He was starting in Seattle’s offseason workouts and training camp into August, until Jackson beat him out.

Brown would appear to be poised to unseat Jackson as the starting left cornerback. Soon.

It looked in the Giants game that Jackson was rising to match the challenge of Brown returning.

“Maybe,” Carroll said. “You never know. Competition works in special ways.

“I don’t know that specifically. But in general, that is going to be a factor because Tre is a good football player. When he gets back to game speed and is ready to go, he’s going to try to make something happen himself, so we will see how it goes.

“There is nothing I love more than seeing that. It’s hard. Guys kind of get comfortable like, ‘I have my spot, and I own it.’ But it’s not always like that. That is what good comp does.”

Asked if Jackson or any other cornerback might switch sides now that Brown is returning, Carroll said Monday: “We will see how it goes. Everybody has to be flexible, but we aren’t going to wholesale shift guys around.

“We like where we are going now.”