If the Buffalo Bills seem like a familiar opponent to Seattle Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV, there’s a good reason for it.
Jones, who was traded from the Tennessee Titans to the Seahawks last week, faced the Bills in his first game with Seattle. The significance lies in the fact that he had just played against them the week before while still with the Titans.
This makes Jones the first player in seven years to face the same opponent with two different teams in consecutive weeks. The last player to do so was cornerback Marcus Williams, who faced the Cleveland Browns in back-to-back weeks in 2017 while playing for the New York Jets and then the Houston Texans.
The key distinction between Williams and Jones is that Williams was waived by the Jets and subsequently signed by the Texans, whereas Jones was traded from the Titans to the Seahawks. In fact, Jones is the first player to achieve this feat through a trade since Herschel Walker, who played against the Green Bay Packers in consecutive weeks after being traded from the Dallas Cowboys to the Minnesota Vikings in 1989.
In his first game against the Bills, Jones recorded five tackles, but he ramped up his performance with a season-high 15 tackles in their second matchup. He was on the field for all 76 defensive snaps for Seattle, unfortunately ending up on the losing side in both games against Buffalo.
Jones was traded to Seattle in exchange for linebacker Jerome Baker and a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft.