Seahawks acquire receiver Irv Charles in trade with Jets

Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times on May 27, 2026

Published in Football

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SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks acquired receiver and special teams standout Irv Charles from the New York Jets for a conditional 2028 seventh-round draft pick, the team announced Wednesday afternoon. The move is official pending a physical.

The Seahawks waived Trayvon Rudolph, an undrafted rookie out of Toledo who signed on May 14, to make room on the 91-man roster.

Charles, listed at 6 foot 4, 219 pounds, played in 25 games with the Jets in the 2023 and 2024 seasons almost entirely on special teams — 450 snaps compared to 53 on offense — before missing last season while recovering from an ACL injury suffered late in the 2024 season.

Charles was known in large part for his work on the Jets’ special teams as a gunner and also had a blocked punt during the 2024 season.

Charles had a special teams grade of 90.3 from Pro Football Focus in 2023 and 88.6 in 2024. Some projected him as likely to make the Pro Bowl as a special-teams player in 2024 before he suffered the injury against Miami in December. That game was a week after the Jets played in Seattle, a 26-21 Seahawks win in which Charles played 16 special teams and had one tackle.

Charles does not have a catch in his two NFL seasons with one target each year.

With the move, the Seahawks are adding competition at the gunner spot after losing receiver Dareke Young in free agency. Young, who filled that role often with the Seahawks the last four years, signed with the Raiders. They drafted receiver Emmanuel Henderson Jr. in the sixth round out of Kansas as a potential replacement for Young as a gunner.

Young had nine tackles on special teams last year for the Seahawks, tied for fourth on the team, as they had what were generally acclaimed as among the best special teams units in the NFL in the second season under coordinator Jay Harbaugh. Young had another three tackles in the postseason playing gunner as well as recovering a muffed punt in the NFC title game against the Rams that led to a touchdown and helped spark a 31-27 win over Los Angeles.

Charles, 29, entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he played for one season in 2021 after beginning his career at Penn State. He had 39 receptions for 792 yards and 12 touchdowns in his final college season in 2021 at IUP.

The conditional nature of the pick is likely related to whether Charles makes the Seahawks’ roster and plays in games.

Charles is set to make a non-guaranteed salary of $1.075 million in 2026 in the final year of his contract.

The move comes a day after the Seahawks began OTAs (Organized Team Activities) on Tuesday, their first full-team work since winning the Super Bowl last February. They are scheduled for five more OTAs over the rest of this week and next week and will hold a mandatory minicamp June 9-11 to conclude the offseason program.

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