Analysis: Seahawks Should Tread Carefully Regarding Potential Riq Woolen Trade
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Seattle Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen celebrates after making a pass breakup during a regular season game. Credit: Riq Woolen/Seattle Seahawks [/caption]
Sitting at 3-1 and tied for first place in the highly-competitive NFC West while riding a three-game winning streak, the Seattle Seahawks have gotten off to a strong start in their second season under coach Mike Macdonald.
However, it isn’t all paradise in the Pacific Northwest after four weeks of the 2025 campaign. While Seattle looks poised to vie for a division title for the first time since 2020, one of the team’s biggest names on defense may be on the trade block, creating a potential distraction for the team to navigate heading towards next month’s deadline.
According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, teams have been “monitoring” the availability of Pro Bowl cornerback Riq Woolen, who has endured a challenging fourth season for the Seahawks thus far. When asked about other teams being interested in the uber-athletic defender on Monday, Macdonald responded to the rumors with a generic answer.
“I think if teams are interested in our players, it means we’ve got good players. So, I love having great players,” Macdonald replied.
While the report does not suggest a deal involving Woolen is imminent, where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire, especially considering the former Defensive Rookie of the Year finalist’s current plight.
In the final year of his rookie contract and set to become a free agent in March, Woolen got off to a rocky start in a season-opening loss to the 49ers, losing track of the ball while allowing a long catch to Ricky Pearsall and letting tight end Jake Tonges slide in front of him to catch a game-winning touchdown a few plays later when he appeared to be in great position for a pass breakup in the end zone at minimum. One day later, Macdonald was non-committal on his status as a starter, saying “we’ll see,” far from a positive endorsement.
An injury to fellow cornerback Devon Witherspoon kept Woolen in the starting lineup for the next two weeks, and he played better football in wins over the Steelers and Saints, allowing six catches for 56 yards with no touchdowns in those contests. But with Witherspoon returning for Thursday Night Football against the Cardinals, the veteran started to cede snaps to reserve safety D’Anthony Bell as a big nickel with Josh Jobe remaining in the lineup across from Witherspoon as the second boundary cornerback, a clear sign that Jobe has passed him on the depth chart.
Compounding Woolen’s problems, though he only allowed one catch for 16 yards on three targets, he committed a trio of penalties, with two of them leading to Arizona scoring drives. A facemask penalty set up a field goal for the Cardinals in the first quarter, while he committed a pair of blatant defensive pass interference penalties in the second half with the latter leading to a touchdown pass from Kyler Murray to Marvin Harrison Jr. as the tide of the game turned.
On the first penalty in the third quarter, Woolen got caught flat-footed against receiver Michael Wilson, who blew past him on a vertical route that could have easily resulted in a long touchdown. In that sense, the defender’s decision to grab onto the receiver and impede his progress ended up being a smarter play than letting the wideout toast him for six points, and the Cardinals wound up punting. But the second infraction, which came against receiver Xavier Weaver near the end zone, was far more egregious, as the cornerback was right in the wideout’s hip pocket with great coverage and simply didn’t make an effort to turn and play the football, leading to an easy interference call.
Two plays later, Murray made Woolen and the Seahawks pay lofting a jump ball to Harrison, who skied over Witherspoon in the end zone to haul in the touchdown and cut Seattle’s lead to 20-13 midway through the fourth quarter. It was just another example of the talented defender not being able to finish plays, which has become a point of frustration for Macdonald and the coaching staff.
And, unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Woolen has been in the proverbial dog house during his time in Seattle. During the 2023 season, former coach Pete Carroll claimed he pulled the then-second year cornerback out of the lineup against San Francisco due to a shoulder issue that was preventing him from holding up as a tackler, but even with an injury, it was a performance-based decision. Then last December, Macdonald sent Woolen to the bench in a must-win against the Vikings, citing team rules violations as the reason for his brief demotion.
Given Woolen’s struggles that have led to a slight downtick in playing time, his previous track record of inconsistency and benchings, and the fact his contract will be up after this season, it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the Seahawks have been fielding calls for him leading up to the NFL trade deadline. If the organization isn’t sure about his fit with the team long-term and/or has hesitancies about paying him on a multi-year contract, shopping him with hopes of landing decent draft compensation in return makes more sense than simply letting him walk for nothing next spring.
At the same time, Seattle shouldn’t be looking to jettison the 26-year old Woolen for a bag of peanuts either, and dangling a player with his immense physical and athletic gifts always presents a case of risky business. Cornerbacks standing 6-4 with long arms, sub-4.30 speed, and receiver-like ball skills don’t grow on trees and it’s not as if he has been a project who hasn’t produced on the field either. In a different uniform, if he fully achieved his potential, he could be a perennial All-Pro, which would make giving up on him look foolish.
For all of his struggles in 2025, including ranking second in the league currently with six penalties, Woolen still has only allowed 10 receptions in four games this year and holistically, he ranks in the top five among cornerbacks in interceptions (11) and pass breakups (29) since the start of the 2022 season. While there have been obvious frustrations with his development since his breakout rookie year and he hasn’t been able to replicate his numbers from that season, there’s no denying he has been one of the most productive ball hawks in the league. The stats more than bear that out and Macdonald believes the staff can do more to help him get his confidence back on the practice field.
“I think he's pressing a little bit with the situation going on,” Macdonald said. “But it does seem like some of those penalties are in the same mode where it's playing the deep ball, when he is in phase. A couple of them he was put in a tough spot where they looked like it was underthrown a little bit, and that's a hard situation for the corner, but we can keep putting him in more situations in practice, give him some more exposure to those plays so he has some more confidence when he is put in those situations. Those are plays that he's made throughout his career. We expect him to make them. He knows that he can make those plays and we'll just go try to make it right at this point.”
Trading Woolen also would create a significant depth problem for the Seahawks in the secondary. Jobe has rightfully earned a starting spot with his outstanding play and Witherspoon remains one of the best all-around corners in the NFC when healthy, but there’s a substantial drop off behind those two players and Woolen with unproven second-year defender Nehemiah Pritchett and an aging Shaquill Griffin being the other two boundary options on the roster or practice squad currently. If injuries hit, thrusting either of them into the lineup would be a clear downgrade.
Without being privy to everything that has transpired behind the scenes over the past few weeks, it’s difficult to know whether Rapoport’s report spawned from someone within the Seahawks’ organization hoping to drum up outside interest to acquire a quality draft pick, someone from Woolen’s camp with the player becoming disgruntled by lost playing time and seeking a change of scenery, or a source from another team who believes he could be on the market. But it’s hard to fathom this report seeing the light of day without either Seattle or Woolen driving the trade train to an extent.
On one hand, Macdonald wasn’t at the helm when Seattle drafted Woolen, whose size and length fit the profile of what Carroll desired at cornerback more than his successor. This could be a case where the puzzle piece just doesn’t fit with the current coaching staff as it did with Carroll’s staff. On the other hand, Woolen has been a starter since Day 1 of his rookie season and aside from occasional focus lapses, he has been an above average starter at worst, and if he feels like his future isn’t with the Seahawks as he slowly loses reps in the secondary, he may be interested in changing teams before free agency next spring.
Regardless, unless Woolen starts to cause problems internally to the point where keeping him is no longer tenable, which multiple sources indicated to Emerald City Spectrum was not the case, general manager John Schneider has no reason to move him unless a team swoops in with a third-round pick or a similarly valued package that warrants consideration. He has still played north of 90 percent of the defensive snaps in all four games, so saying he has been benched seems like quite the exaggeration, and he has been a significant contributor even with his handful of botched plays that have drawn scrutiny in the early going.
As things stand, Woolen remains one of the most talented and gifted players at any position in the NFL, and trading him just for the sake of trading him should not be an option. Instead, as the coach insinuated, Macdonald and his staff should continue to do everything they can to maximize his abilities and coach him up to get his confidence back up with the aim for improved results on the field. If the right offer lands on Schneider’s desk, then it would behoove him to contemplate the possibility, but he shouldn’t pull the trigger unless he gets blown away by a deal he simply cannot refuse, as the Seahawks are a worse team without him.
