Early Shopping: Seahawks Lock Up Jarran Reed on Multi-Year Deal
December 24, 2023: Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed (90) bull rushes Tennessee Titans guard Aaron Brewer (55) during the second half of an NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium in Nashville TN Steve Roberts/CSM
Capping off a turbulent week with positive news by retaining one of their own players prior to the start of free agency and illustrating that the franchise isn’t thinking about entering a rebuild phase, the Seattle Seahawks have inked veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed to a new multi-year deal to solidify their defensive line.
Just two days after Seattle shockingly traded quarterback Geno Smith to Las Vegas to reunite with coach Pete Carroll, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Reed and the Seahawks have agreed on a three-year deal worth up to $25 million, preventing him from testing the market as an unrestricted free agent. Guaranteed money has yet to be disclosed, but based on past precedent, the third year of the contract likely will be a wait-and-see add-on.
Speaking with reporters during the NFL combine last month, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald indicated the team wanted Reed back in 2025 and not just for his contributions on the field, but his irreplaceable value in the locker room. The two sides were able to hash out a new deal accordingly and now, there’s a chance the former second-round pick out of Alabama could finish his career where it started in the Pacific Northwest.
"I certainly hope so. I mean, I'm confident on how J-Reed feels about us. And he knows how we feel about him," Macdonald said at the time.
Playing in the second-year of a two-year contract signed to return to Seattle after a pair of seasons in Kansas City and Green Bay, Reed remained a disruptive force in the trenches for the Seahawks last season alongside Leonard Williams and rookie Byron Murphy II. Though he wasn’t quite able to replicate his sack production from one year earlier with 4.5 of them, he turned in stellar numbers once again, registering 45 combined tackles, 4.5 sacks, two swatted passes, a forced fumble, and 15 quarterback hits, the second most in a season in his nine-year career.
According to Pro Football Focus, Reed ranked in the top 15 among defensive tackles in both quarterback pressures and quarterback hits. Most impressively, while seeing snaps up and down the line in numerous alignments, he was charged with just a single missed tackle against the run last season, playing an integral role in the unit’s dramatic improvement from 30th in rushing yards allowed in 2023 to 16th in 2024.
With his 33rd birthday approaching in December, the Seahawks opting to make such a significant investment shows how much he truly means to the team and Macdonald’s defense moving forward. Even if Murphy takes on a larger workload as anticipated with more 3-tech reps and the veteran sees a slight downtick in playing time as a result, such a contract wouldn’t have been given to him if they didn’t view him as a key piece of the puzzle for the foreseeable future up front.
Re-signing him also won’t stop Macdonald and Seattle from further fortifying the defensive line in free agency and/or the draft, as the Super Bowl champion Eagles demonstrated there’s no such thing as too much depth at defensive tackle in the NFL.
“There's going to be great competition in our D-line, because you only put four out there for the most part when it's pass rush opportunity. The best four need to stack those reps so we they can rush at a high level. It takes a lot,” Macdonald explained in Indy. “There's a lot of unspoken chemistry that it takes to rush four as a unit, and you got to stack those reps. Again, you can never have a deep enough D-line. You're never going to go into the season like, ‘Yep, we're good on the D-line.’ I thought we were loaded last year, and we're fortunate with some of the long term injuries… You always want to be full strength.”
After inking Reed to a new deal, with free agency set to kick off on March 10 with the legal tampering period beginning, Seattle will shift its attention solely towards extending linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who the team acquired from Tennessee in a pre-deadline deal in October. The 25-year old defender served as a catalyst for the team’s transformation into a top-10 scoring defense in the second half, racking up 94 tackles and an interception while helping the team allow under 18 points per game in their final eight contests and cut their rushing yardage allowed by nearly 50 yards per game.
