The Seattle Seahawks waived linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. with an injury designation Thursday, a quiet transaction that still lands with a familiar sting for anyone who followed the Los Angeles Rams’ 2025 draft.
Paul, the former Ole Miss standout the Rams traded up to select at No. 172, never became the sideline-to-sideline piece they hoped he would be in Los Angeles.
Now he is off Seattle’s 90-man roster as well, without a regular-season snap on his NFL résumé.
The Rams paid extra to get him. On Day 3 of the 2025 draft they packaged two sixth-round picks to move up 29 spots and take the 6-foot-1, then-222-pound inside linebacker after a productive year at Ole Miss: 88 tackles, 11 for loss, 3.5 sacks and a Butkus Award finalist nod.
Les Snead and Sean McVay saw range and coverage traits they wanted after trading Ernest Jones. Those traits never translated in Thousand Oaks.
A calf injury kept Paul off the field early in his rookie camp. When he returned, he played but never separated himself.
On cutdown day, McVay was blunt: the Rams were keeping four inside linebackers, and special teams value mattered as much as defensive snaps.
Undrafted Shaun Dolac and veteran Troy Reeder won those roster spots. Paul was waived Aug. 26, 2025. He went unclaimed. Two days later the Seahawks signed him to their practice squad, an in-division grab that looked shrewd at the time.
It did not become a breakout. Paul spent the entire 2025 season on Seattle’s practice squad while the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. He was never elevated.
In Februar,y he signed a reserve/futures deal for another look. This summer an undisclosed injury limited him again. Seattle waived him injured Thursday to claim offensive tackle Kellen Diesch off waivers from Kansas City.
If Paul clears, he reverts to the Seahawks’ injured reserve. He has still never played in a regular-season game.
From a Rams perspective, the original cut looks less shocking now. McVay’s emphasis on four-phase contributors was not just coach-speak. Paul was a college producer with a safety’s frame and questions about play recognition.
The Rams decided those questions would not be answered on their 53-man roster. A year later, a Super Bowl champion is making a similar calculation. That does not make the trade-up a success. Day 3 picks are swings. This one missed in Los Angeles and has not connected in Seattle either. Paul is 23.
He may still find a practice-squad landing spot once healthy. For the Rams, the story is already written: they spent extra capital on a linebacker who did not pan out, and the division rival that scooped him up has now moved on too.
