SEATTLE – For a while now, the end of Riq Woolen’s Seahawks career has seemed a question of when and not whether.
There figures to be some resolution to his status soon.
The NFL trade deadline this year arrives on Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. Seattle time.
To state the obvious point, if Woolen is not dealt by that time, he’ll almost certainly finish out the season with the Seahawks and become a free agent in March and likely sign elsewhere.
A trade could well happen before Nov. 4.
One reason is that NFL teams have increasingly made trades in the days leading up to the deadline instead of waiting for the deadline itself.
Last year, the Seahawks traded linebacker Jerome Baker and a fourth-round pick to the Titans for linebacker Ernest Jones IV on Oct. 23, well before the Nov. 5 trade deadline.
Not waiting until the deadline has become a trend in the NFL in recent years.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter recently predicted there would be 10-12 trades before the deadline. There have so far been three in October.
Another reason is the Seahawks having a bye following their game Monday night against Houston at Lumen Field.
Maybe they would prefer to get a deal done before returning for their next game on Nov. 2 at Washington.
Trade rumors have circled around Woolen for weeks.
The main reason is his expiring contract and that there has seemed little chance a new deal with the Seahawks will happen before he hits free agency.
After a glorious start to his career with an NFL-leading six interceptions and Pro Bowl bid in 2022, Woolen’s career has stagnated, pockmarked by a handful of misplays, blown assignments and penalties, and it seems apparent the Seahawks are ready to move on.
If they are going to let him walk, why not try to get something?
And as Sunday’s 20-12 win at Jacksonville showed, the Seahawks have answers at cornerback without him.
Woolen sat out the game with a concussion, the first he’s missed this season.
The Seahawks also played without cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who has played just one game since hurting his knee late in the season opener against the 49ers on Sept. 7.
No matter.
They held Trevor Lawrence and the Jags offense to 12 points and 273 yards, each season lows for Jacksonville, going with Josh Jobe and Shaquill Griffin as the starting cornerbacks.
Griffin was elevated off the practice squad twice. Players can be elevated only three times before going on the 53-man roster to continue to play.
If Woolen were traded, the Seahawks could sign Griffin to the 53 to take his place and have a full complement of cornerbacks, especially with Witherspoon due back as early as this week.
Also, the Seahawks used a five-defensive back alignment for most of the Jags game that included safety Nick Emmanwori instead of using a third cornerback.
Emmanwori’s return and emergence as a legitimate every-down defensive option only deepens the Seahawks’ depth in the secondary.
There’s the question, of course, of what they could get for Woolen.
Two possibilities were floated on Thursday:
– ESPN’s Bill Barnwell speculated that the Seahawks could deal Woolen to the Eagles for cornerback Kelee Ringo.
“Let’s swap frustrating cornerbacks,” Barnwell wrote, detailing Woolen’s struggles this year – including the two completions allowed late in the season-opening loss to the 49ers – and how Ringo has failed to become a consistent starter for the Eagles after arriving as a fourth-round pick out of Georgia in 2023.
Ringo has started just seven of the 40 games he’s played in as an Eagle. He started two games earlier this year but had a tough performance in a loss to the Giants last Thursday that has increased speculation that the Eagles may try to move him.
While the Seahawks may not be in urgent need of another cornerback with Witherspoon returning, Griffin proving he can still be an every-down corner, and Emmanwori’s emergence, Ringo could be appealing for two reasons.
1. His contract goes through the 2026 season so the Seahawks could view Ringo – who is still just 23 years old – as a player who could thrive in a different environment. Even if he might not be needed much now, he could use the rest of the season to get acclimated to the Seahawks’ way of doing things and be primed for a key role in 2026, with Griffin only under contract through the end of this season.
2. He has local ties, growing up in Tacoma and playing as a freshman at Bellarmine Prep before moving to the Phoenix area. He said before the 2023 draft that he still considers Tacoma his real hometown.
He also was mentored before the 2023 draft by former Seahawk Richard Sherman, whom he got to know when returning to the Seattle area in offseasons during his college days.
“It’s been great being able to learn from the legend himself,” Ringo said at the NFL combine in 2023.
– Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda wrote Thursday that the Raiders and former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll could be interested in acquiring Woolen. That makes sense for all the obvious reasons. Carroll championed the drafting of Woolen in 2022, and he responded with his best season as a rookie.
Speculating a Woolen-Carroll reunion might just be putting two and two together.
Pauline also wrote that the Seahawks could try to pull off a “possible straight up trade to the Miami Dolphins for running back De’Von Achane, a move the Seahawks would make if the opportunity existed.”
Pauline wrote that regardless of if Woolen were involved that the Seahawks might try to trade for Achane because he would “bring the speed and home-run hitting ability not presently found at running back for the Seahawks.”
Fans of Kenneth Walker III might dispute the assertion the Seahawks don’t have a home-run hitting running back.
That rumor brought immediate online blowback from some observers who noted that the 24-year-old Achane also is under contract through 2026 and wondering why the Dolphins would give up their leading rusher (390 yards on 76 carries, 5.1 per attempt) for a pending free agent at a different position.
Especially as the 1-5 Dolphins are not in win-now mode – unlike the Eagles, who could hope that Woolen would solve some defensive issues as they try to make another Super Bowl run.
Such rumors figure to only grow over the next couple weeks until Woolen is either traded or the deadline passes.
What might also help spur a trade is if Woolen returns to full health this week. He practiced on a limited basis last week while still in the concussion protocol, but did not make enough progress to get cleared to play against Jacksonville.
But Woolen was back in full pads Thursday.
As Woolen took the field, he jogged past a few reporters watching from the sideline and offered an amiable hello.
The next few weeks will determine if Woolen may also soon be saying goodbye to his first NFL team.