Motivated by Michael Bennett, Jarran Reed at nose tackle is huge to the Seahawks’ season
Jarran Reed walked out of his locker room flicking a hair pick into his expanding curls.
He’d turned his 6 feet 3 into about 6-10.
“This is a good hair day,” he said, putting his hair pick away. “Wonderful hair.”
If he can make the Seahawks’ run defense as good as his hair, Seattle is going to fix its biggest problem from last season.
Coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider spent a possible $124.5 million in new contracts plus three picks in the first five round of the 2023 NFL draft on remaking Seattle’s defensive front seven. That includes bringing back All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner, spending $51 million in free agency on new end Dre’Mont Jones and $9 million to bring back Reed, the Seahawks’ second-round pick in 2016, after his two years away.
That’s because the Seahawks spent much of last season allowing 170 rushing yards per game, which would have been the worst mark in team history. They ended up yielding more than 150 yards per game in 2022.
“Everything starts up front, so when you are the 30th running defense they are going to blame the front,” Reed said.
“I can guarantee you it’s not going to happen this year. We’re not going for that.”
Carroll is putting on ton on the large shoulders of the 6-foot-3, 306-pound Reed replacing departed 360-pound Al Woods in the middle of Seattle’s 3-4 defensive front.
Versatility is the key to Carroll’s defensive remake.
Versatility is what Reed gives them up front.
The Seahawks list Reed as a nose tackle. But Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt, the team’s former line coach, have him doing much more.
They have Reed head up on the opposing center, as a “zero technique” nose tackle. They have him shading to either shoulder of the center. They have him holding gaps on some plays, shooting them by charging up the field at the snap.
They also have him sometimes playing between the guard and the tackle as a “three-technique,” more outside. That’s more like he was as a 4-3 tackle in Carroll’s old Seahawks defense from 2016-20.
Reed went to Kansas City for the 2021 season, after the Seahawks tried to trade him then released him in a contract dispute; Reed didn’t want to renegotiate his high salary for 2021. Reed played with Green Bay last season.
Rookie fourth-round pick Cameron Young (323 pounds) and rookie fifth-round choice Mike Morris (295) missed the majority of the preseason with injuries. Veteran Bryan Mone (345) is a long way from returning following a major knee injury in December and complications from surgery.
It’s Reed, plus Young’s return from injury and practice-squad lineman Matt Gotel (340) from Lakes High School as the true tackles in the middle to improve this run defense.
That makes Reed perhaps the most important man in the defense. Maybe on the team, given the Seahawks must dethrone the run-heavy, physically superior San Francisco 49ers to win the NFC West this season.
That’s not just speculation. That’s what Seattle’s top football authority says.
“I think one of the keys is Jarran Reed coming back to us,” Carroll said. “Jarran Reed playing nose tackle for us is crucial.
“He’s a terrific player. He’s just as tough, as physical, and as knowledgeable as you can get. He’ll do great there. That is going to be one of the key elements of building it (the scheme) around him, and we’re really counting on him to be a big factor.”
Carroll said variations of that about Reed’s importance multiple times during training camp.
Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril tutoring
Carroll is investing more than Seattle’s money and draft capital on his defensive front.
In training camp, he brought back Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril to teach Reed and his fellow Seahawks D-linemen.
The former Pro Bowl defensive ends and Super Bowl-champion Seahawks were working on Reed’s and the current linemen’s footwork, handwork and mind work for parts of August.
Reed’s reaction when he found out the outspoken, sometimes controversial and emotional Bennett, an analyst on the team’s preseason game television broadcasts, was joining Avril coming in to coach him?
“At first, I thought it was going to be traumatizing,” Reed said, “because those were my vets as a rookie.
“I was talking to Cliff and Mike B.. Having them in here was like a new energy that came into the building. That just showed me that they care, and they want to see us do well.”
Hurtt, Carroll and teammates said Reed was noticeably motivated and flying across the line of scrimmage during camp.
That was because of Bennett and Avril, who’s stayed around the team since retiring in 2018. They put Reed back into his rookie, prove-it mode on the 2016 Seahawks.
“Getting acknowledged from those guys really took me back a little bit. I wouldn’t say humbling, but it was very reminiscing,” Reed said. “It was like, ‘Yeah I’ve got to work hard’ and show those guys I’ve still got it.
“I wasn’t trying to impress them but show them I’m working hard and what they taught me, I’ve brought it along with me my whole career.”
All-new front for Seattle
Reed is in the middle of an all-new Seahawks defensive line.
Jones, in from Denver for Carroll’s and Schneider’s uncharacteristic splurge in the first, expensive wave of free agency, is at one end next to Reed. Mario Edwards, an overlooked signing late in the offseason and former second-round pick by the Raiders, is the starter at the other end. Newly minted Uchenna Nwosu, who co-led Seattle with a career-best 9 1/2 sacks in 2022, and Boye Mafe are the starting edge rushers who be rushing up field outside Jones and Edwards.
None of them will have the varied roles and singular importance of Reed in the center of the defense.
Reed loves his multiple roles along the line. He’s played all gaps, all techniques, in his seven seasons with the Seahawks, Chiefs and Packers.
“I like to be versatile and just be wherever the team needs me to play,” he said. “It’s nothing new. At the end of the day, a shade is a shade, a three (technique) is a three, and a five is a five.”
Reed, now 30, was on one of the only two Seahawks teams not to make the playoffs the last 11 seasons. That was in 2017, his second NFL season with Seattle. He’s been on defenses that haven’t totally bought in to what Carroll was teaching, have not “been on the same page,” as players and coaches like to say.
This is not one of those, Reed said. Multiple times this summer.
To hear him tell it, this Seahawks run defense is carrying a chip the size of Mount Rainier.
“Everybody’s focused. Everybody’s locked in. The preparation is phenomenal,” Reed said. “When we got to the field, let’s say we put a new play in, there’s really no mistakes or no mental errors. If there is, it’s just a slick change. You don’t have to say the same thing to these guys over and over.
“I think everybody’s on the same page on the defense. Everybody wants to be dominant. Everybody wants to be great.
“Everybody wants to change the narrative right now that we have on this defense.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
