Leonard Williams says the trade that sent him from the New York Giants to the Seattle Seahawks in 2023 did more than change teams. Nearly three years later, he describes it as the move that transformed his career and helped bring back his love for the game.
Williams spent nine years in a busy East Coast environment after being drafted there, with stops with the New York Jets and New York Giants. He said that stretch came with losing seasons, coaching changes, injuries and a constant sense of upheaval that made it hard to settle in or build momentum.
A reset in Seattle
“Moving to Seattle has been a really beautiful experience for me and my wife,” Williams said. He added that leaving New York after nine years and landing in Seattle “really just calmed my nervous system.”
That part of the story matters because Williams did not frame the change only as a football move. He said the environment, the people around him and the day-to-day setting all played a major role in his individual success, team success and his enjoyment of the game.
Williams also pointed back to the toughest stretch of his career on the East Coast. He said he was going year after year with losing seasons, new coaching staffs and new culture every two or three years, while also dealing with injuries. By Year 8, he said, he had started wondering whether that was simply how his career would end, even though he still felt he had plenty left in the tank.
Why the move mattered
The Seahawks trade gave Williams a different kind of stability at a critical point in his career. Based on his own description, the change was not just about a fresh uniform or a new locker room. It was about getting out of a cycle that had worn him down and into a setting that helped him feel like himself again.
Williams said he kept pushing and fighting through that difficult stretch before eventually getting to Seattle and turning things around. Nearly three years after the trade, that is still the clearest takeaway: for Williams, Seattle was not just another stop. It was the place that changed the trajectory of his career and reset how he felt about football.
