The Seattle Seahawks acquired Irv Charles from the New York Jets on Wednesday, a move that immediately opened a spot on Seattle's 53-man roster when the team waived wide receiver Trayvon Rudolph.
Charles was traded for a conditional 2028 seventh-round pick and arrives to fill a very specific role: special teams depth and veteran gunner experience. The 219-pound wide receiver played in 25 games for the Jets across the 2023 and 2024 seasons and totaled 450 special teams snaps while making 14 tackles on coverage units. His offensive contribution with the Jets was minimal — zero receptions on two targets in 53 offensive snaps over those two seasons — but his value was clear on kick and punt coverage, where he logged seven special teams tackles in 12 games in 2023 and added seven more tackles and a blocked punt in 2024.
The timing of the deal is significant because Charles missed the 2025 season while recovering from ACL surgery. His knee injury occurred in Week 14 of the 2024 season against the Miami Dolphins, and he did not appear in any games in 2025 while rehabbing. The Jets kept him on the ledger long enough to package him for a late conditional pick, and the Seahawks moved quickly to swap roster pieces, cutting Rudolph to make room.
This is a straight-up special teams acquisition for Seattle. Analytics ranked the Seahawks as the NFL's top special teams unit last season, and the club also used a sixth-round pick on Kansas wide receiver Emmanuel Henderson Jr. to bolster that group. Adding Charles gives the Seahawks a player with more than 400 special teams snaps and a track record as a gunner — the exact kind of situational veteran that can stabilize coverage units coming off an injury absence.
The tension in the move is obvious: Charles has proven value on special teams, but he arrives after a year lost to ACL recovery and with a recent blocked-punt highlight as his freshest on-field résumé entry. Seattle now carries both a rookie sixth-round pick in Emmanuel Henderson Jr. and a veteran who will need to pass a physical and show sharpness in practice before seeing game action. The Seahawks gave up only a conditional 2028 seventh-round pick to get Charles; the small price reflects both his upside as a specialist and the uncertainty that comes with a player returning from major knee surgery.
Tuesday's roster change — the waiver of Trayvon Rudolph — is the immediate consequence for the Seahawks' depth chart. For Charles, the immediate next step is to complete his return-to-play process and convince coaches he can handle the high-effort, high-risk role of a coverage gunner. For Seattle, the move is a low-cost insurance policy for a unit already considered the league's best, adding experienced manpower behind the starters and creating a short-term competition with the newly drafted Emmanuel Henderson Jr.
The single most consequential unanswered question now is whether Charles can regain full on-field form and re-establish the production that made him a standout on special teams before the knee injury. If he can, the Seahawks pick up a seasoned coverage specialist for a late future pick; if he cannot, the addition will look like a gambit to replenish depth while the team leans on younger, healthier options.
