RENTON — Trevis Gipson was walking to breakfast, as he had most early work days in Florida for the last month.
He got pulled aside by his boss. The Jacksonville Jaguars’ general manager, Trent Baalke, wanted to talk to his linebacker.
“Got pulled over to the side, you know. Trent gave me the news,” Gipson said.
He’d been traded, 3,000 miles north and west, from Florida to Seattle.
The Seahawks Sent the Jaguars a pick in the 2025, believed to be in the sixth round, to get Gipson. They think that’s a small price to pay for what they need: Gipson to be an edge-setting run defender and pass rusher at outside linebacker.
Chicago drafted him the fifth round of the 2020 draft out of Tulsa. Seattle is his fourth team in 12 months.
But he wasn’t thinking about that Monday when Baalke jolted him with the trade news. He wasn’t thinking about Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, or the new defense he’s now going to have to learn in 11 days before Seattle”s first game. He wasn’t thinking about the Pacific Northwest, foreign land to the native of Cedar Hill, Texas.
No, the 27-year-old Gipson was immediately concerned with getting his girlfriend Alexis cleared to fly with him to Seattle Monday. She’s just short of eight months pregnant.
“I had to make sure she could come before it was too late (in her pregnancy) for her to be able to fly. That was the main thing,” he said. “She’s due in October.”
Good thing for Gipson, his mom-to-be — not to mention the Seahawks getting him to learn their defense — that they didn’t trade for him next week.
“Exactly,” Gipson said, laughing after his first practice with his new team Tuesday, on the other side of the continent from Jacksonville. “That would have taken its toll.
“But, yeah, both cars still in Jacksonville.
“But right now, I’m just worried about playing football, worried about taking advantage of these next two weeks, the time that I do have before the real race starts.”
His goal with the Seahawks, after playing for the Bears (2020-22), Titans (‘23) and Jaguars (this preseason)?
“Looking forward to getting my career back on track,” he said. “Looking forward to playing with these guys, you know. Looking forward to the city.
“It’s a new chapter that I’m excited about.”
Gipson’s second season in the NFL, in 2021, he had seven sacks and five forced fumbles while playing less than half of the Bears’ defensive snaps that season. He shared a half sack in Chicago’s 25-24 win in the snow at Seattle late that year.
Since then:
• Three sacks in 17 games for Chicago, which released him after that 2022 season
• Eight games with one sack playing just 15% of Tennessee’s defensive snaps in his only season with the Titans last year
• And five months with three preseason games for the Jaguars, as more of an end
Seahawks’ needs at linebacker
The Seahawks need Gipson to be his Bears version of himself: a stout, edge-setting run defender who can also pressure the quarterback with outside pass rush.
Seattle traded edge rusher Darrell Taylor to Chicago Friday because the second-round pick from four years ago didn’t do what what Macdonald demands of his Seahawks outside linebacker: set the edge against the run first.
The team’s best at doing that, Uchenna Nwosu, injured his knee in the final preseason game against Cleveland on Saturday. He is going to be out multiple weeks, The News Tribune confirmed Monday from a league source. But the fact the Seahawks did not put Nwosu on injured reserve while setting the initial 53-man roster for the regular season Tuesday suggests they think they will have the key outside linebacker back before September ends.
Gipson is in a crash course to learn Macdonald’s schemes. Once he gets them down he can augment second-year man Derick Hall and third-year pro Boye Mafe at outside linebacker for Seattle’s first games. Those are Sept. 8 against Denver then Sept. 15 at New England.
“Think we got a heck of a group,” Macdonald said, before he and the team added Gipson to it.
“Excited for the next phase here.”
As for Gipson’s next phase, what’s “getting his career back on track,” as he mentioned, look like while he’s playing for the Seahawks this season?
“To me that looks like getting a double-digit sack season,” he said.
Yeah, Macdonald and the NFL’s 30th-ranked defense last season would take that.
“I know I’m capable of it,” Gipson said. “I got the seven (sacks) and five forced fumbles on playing half (of the defensive snaps) for the year.
“So, you know, I’m not gonna let anybody put a ceiling on me. And to me, the sky’s the limit, I believe.”
Trevis Gipson’s first impressions
Gipson had one day of meetings and one practice for Seattle. Yet he already had a summary of Macdonald.
“Man, great guy,” Gipson said Tuesday of the former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator, now the NFL’s youngest head coach at age 37.
“I can tell that he doesn’t let up on pressure (on quarterbacks), which is something that you always want,” Gipson said. “Just from that standpoint alone, you know, you confirm that you’re not wasting your time. You’re not just out here playing the plays. You’re actually playing to win. And I know that’s the that’s the environment that the Seahawks bring.”
His first impression of Macdonald’s schemes? Does he sense the Seahawks will play him more like he played with the Bears, or more inside and as a down end as the Jaguars were trying him this month?
“I would say more like Chicago, more outside linebacker, you know, not as much inside, not playing 4i (technique, an end inside shoulder of the offensive tackle) that much,” he said. “But you know, I think the thing that I love most is I can tell that they’re letting their guys go. Man, rush and play physical. Play fast. Disruptive.
“I think that’s something that plays into my my scheme.”
Now that he got his girlfriend safely moved in advance of their baby boy arriving, now that he’s made a jolting trek across the country to his latest NFL home, Gipson is already tackling Macdonald’s schemes.
The Seahawks hope tackling quarterbacks and ball carriers comes soon.
“It’s a nice, decent playbook,” Gipson deadpanned.
“It’s going to be grind mode.”
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