The Seahawks are set to be thin in the secondary in Jacksonville on Sunday.
Head coach Mike Macdonald said at his Friday press conference that the team will list cornerback Devon Witherspoon (knee), safety Julian Love (hamstring) and cornerback Riq Woolen (concussion) as doubtful to play. That makes it likely that all three players will be inactive as Macdonald tries to run his road record with Seattle to 10-1.
Macdonald also said that linebacker Derick Hall (oblique) and offensive lineman Josh Jones (ankle) have been ruled out.
There was better news for linebacker Ernest Jones (shoulder) and edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence (quad). Both players are good to go against the Jaguars.
Cornerback Greg Newsome has only been a member of the Jaguars for a couple of days, but the team plans for him to be on the field against the Seahawks on Sunday.
Newsome was acquired in a trade with the Browns earlier this week and joined the team on Thursday. Head coach Liam Coen said that “the plan right now is to be able to continue to onboard him as much as we can through the next few days here” in order to make it possible for Newsome to contribute on defense right away.
Newsome said he’s excited about making the move from a 1-4 Browns team to the 4-1 Jaguars.
“Obviously in Cleveland, you’re sitting there mad: ‘We’ve got to find a way, we’ve got to find a way,’” Newsome said, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com. “And then when I get here I’m like, ‘Wow, we just won.’ Obviously I didn’t play, but we just won. So, yeah, it feels amazing. I’m just going to try to do my best to help them keep this upward trend up.”
Newsome said that it’s difficult to cram an entire defense in such a short period of time, but expressed confidence that he’ll be prepared for “whatever” the team has in mind for him on Sunday.
The Wednesday night news dump that the Browns and Jaguars had swapped a pair of starting cornerbacks caused considerable head-scratching for fans of both teams.
For Cleveland, it makes plenty of sense. They swapped the balance of Greg Newsome’s $13.377 million fifth-year option for Tyson Campbell, who is under contract through 2027. With much of the money already paid by Jacksonville.
The Browns will owe Campbell $1.08 million for the rest of the 2025 season, with three year and $45.6 million after that. It’s an average of $15.2 million per year, at a time when the market has reached $30 million in new money annually.
So what would Newsome want on a new deal? Assuming that the Browns had an inkling as to his coming demands — and given that the franchise tag for next year at the cornerback position will be well over $20 million — the Browns get certainty and affordability.
Undoubtedly, there’s a formula somewhere in the Cleveland front office that, when the numbers were run, pointed to doing the deal. Given the franchise’s decade-long obsession with analytics (which has resulted in the consumption of significant analgesics), every decision presumably flows from an effort to turn a subjective sport into an objective calculation.
Of course, there’s one important caveat to the scientific exercise that resulted in swapping out Newsome for Campbell. Campbell knows how much the Browns owe him through 2027. If he plays well, he’ll want a revised deal, sooner or later.
The move makes less sense for the Jaguars, financially. They’ll take a cap charge of $22.72 million in 2026 for Campbell. And they stand in the same contractual shoes that the Browns were in with Newsome, with the tag as the only alternative to letting him hit the open market in March (unless they sign him to a new deal).
Still, the new regime in Jacksonville undoubtedly decided that, for whatever reason, Newsome will be a better fit than Campbell was. And the Jaguars, at 4-1, are looking to make a strong defense even stronger as they continue to establish themselves as a contender in a currently wide-open AFC.
The Jaguars have made it official, announcing the trade to acquire cornerback Greg Newsome from the Browns.
Jacksonville sent Cleveland cornerback Tyson Campbell and a seventh-round pick in the 2026 draft in exchange for Newsome and a sixth-round pick in the 2026 draft.
“We are trying to win football games now and Greg helps us do that, as his skillset is a strong fit for our defensive scheme, which puts more vision on the quarterback and will lean on Greg’s ability to find the football,” Jaguars G.M. James Gladstone said in a statement released by the team. “We will continue to be aggressive, to make us the best possible team this season.”
A first-round pick in 2021, Newsome has recorded 37 career passes defensed with three career interceptions. Through five games in 2025, Newsome has tallied 23 total tackles with two for loss and three passes defensed.
The Jaguars and Browns have agreed to a swap of cornerbacks and draft picks, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
The Jaguars get Greg Newsome and the Jets’ 2026 sixth-round pick from the Browns. The Browns get Tyson Campbell and the Eagles’ 2026 seventh-round pick from the Jaguars.
The Jaguars signed Campbell to a four-year, $76.5 million extension that included $53.4 million guaranteed in July 2024. Newsome, the 26th overall pick in the 2021 draft, is in the final year of a contract that pays him $13.38 million this season on his fifth-year option.
Newsome, 25, has 23 tackles and three pass breakups this season and 178 tackles, three interceptions and 37 pass breakups in his career.
Campbell, 25, was a second-round pick of the Jaguars in 2021. He has 34 tackles, six pass breakups and a forced fumble this season and 296 tackles, six interceptions and 42 pass breakups in his career.
Neither player has earned Pro Bowl honors.
