Nose-tackle sage: Jarran Reed’s pre-snap predictions key Seahawks’ improved run defense
There’s still a long way to go, but...
Jarran Reed said so.
“Everything starts up front. If you’re the 30th(-ranked) running defense they’re going to blame the front,” Reed said just before this Seahawks season began.
“I can guarantee it’s not going to happen this year. We’re not going for that.”
So far, it’s not happening this year.
Seattle (3-1) enters its post-bye test Sunday at Cincinnati (2-3) ranked sixth in the NFL in rushing defense (87.5 yards per game). There are still three-quarters of the season to go, but the Seahawks have gone from bottom three to top six against the run. They are allowing about half the rushing yards they did in 2022.
They are producing results on their number-one priority to improve in 2023.
They are backing up Reed’s promise.
Taking away the run and forcing the Lions, Panthers and Giants to almost exclusively throw later in games has keyed the Seahawks’ three-game winning streak.
It will be key Sunday to Seattle’s attempt to slow Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and the Bengals offense. Cincinnati got back to its expected excellence last weekend in a 34-20 win at Arizona.
The Seahawks’ goal on defense this week is what middle linebacker and captain Bobby Wagner says it is every week: Take away the run, make the opponent pass. Without worrying about the run, the Seahawks can then focus on pressuring the quarterback trying to throw because he has to.
Their last game the Seahawks sacked Giants quarterback Daniel Jones 11 times, tying a team record. That moved Seattle from third from last in the NFL in sacks to tied for first entering the team’s bye last week.
Running back Joe Mixon behind Cincinnati’s iffy offensive line is Seattle’s first priority to stop Sunday.
“We just have to make sure that we try to make them one-dimensional,” Wagner said. “A lot of times people sleep on their run game. They don’t run as much, but they have a really talented back that can get going if you don’t stop them.
“Our job is to stop him and make them do what they want to do, which is throw the ball, and then make our plays in the pass game.”
Jarran Reed’s role
Reed was Seattle’s second-round draft choice in 2016. He re-signed this spring after two seasons away in Green Bay and Kansas City.
Carroll has called Reed the key to an overhaul of the defensive front. Edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu is the only returning starter on the defensive line from 2022.
Reed has been in the center of this revival versus the run. Literally. He is the all-important nose tackle over the offense’s center.
He had what Carroll called the best game he’s seen him play on Sept. 24 against Carolina. Reed tied his career high with eight tackles and had 1 1/2 sacks with three hits on quarterback Andy Dalton in Seattle’s 37-27 win.
Carroll and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt are moving Reed off the center, over the opposing guard to the left and right side.
Carroll and Hurtt are also entrusting Reed to communicate pre-snap calls to end Dre’Mont Jones and his fellow defensive linemen. The 30-year-old, eighth-year veteran is yelling out the offense’s formation, what he expects to be the foe’s blocking scheme and often where the ball is about to go.
How accurate has Reed been with his forecasting to teammates?
“Very accurate,” Wagner said.
The linebacker lines up a couple yards behind Reed for most plays.
Wagner is having something of a career renaissance early in his return season with Seattle. The six-time All-Pro continued his stellar start to his 12th NFL season at age 33 with 17 tackles, two sacks, two tackles for losses and two quarterback hits in the Seahawks’ 24-3 win at the Giants Oct. 2.
Wagner credits much of his success this season to how Reed is playing — and talking — in front of him.
“Just how smart he is, and his communication,” Wagner said. “I think he has a really good understanding of what the offensive line tries to do from a blocking scheme perspective, and he’s really good at communicating that to all of the D-linemen.
“You can hear him sometimes before, call out some plays, call out the protections. And I think that really allows the guys that’s playing next to him to play fast.”
Last season the Seahawks had a different style of nose tackle. Al Woods was 36 and a massive, 360-plus pound space eater difficult for offenses to move.
The Seahawks let the contract of Woods, a team captain last year, expire this past winter. They signed Reed back to be a younger, quicker, more versatile nose tackle at 306 pounds. The idea was to beat offensive linemen through the hole and into the backfield, rather than not being able to move the nose tackle out of the hole.
Reed got a two-year contract worth up to $10.8 million. It feels like a bargain for Seattle.
What makes Reed so accurate with his pre-snap predictions that have teammates anticipating what play is coming?
“Most of it is experience and feel,” Carroll said. “The experience to have the awareness that he can separate from the action and get into the mental part of it, what’s going on, what he’s looking at, the formations, the sets, so that he can take advantage of it.
“Some guys are just getting to the next play. He’s already thinking of what we could do. He’s strategizing. He’s got a plan.”
It’s not like Reed is giving a sermon or detailed breakdown to his teammates between the time they break the defensive huddle to the snap. That time might be a few seconds.
“There’s a poise to that, too. There’s not a lot of time there from when he gets his information that he has to communicate,” Carroll said.
“The part that I think is really obvious is he commands their respect. They’ll do what he tells them at the last second and they’ll take advantage of it as best as they can, of the games and the stunts we’re using.
“It’s a lot to it.”
The Clint Hurtt factor
An important factor to Reed’s readiness: His closeness with Hurtt.
Hurtt was Reed’s defensive-line coach for four seasons, from 2017-2020 when Reed was ending his first stint with Seattle.
Hurtt relates the big picture of the Seahawks’ defensive game plan to Reed. That makes Reed a Wagner-like signal caller and middle linebacker, knowing where every defender is supposed to be and how he should be reacting to a certain formation and play.
That’s more than most nose tackles take on.
“There’s a plan. We trust him. Clint has a great relationship with him, and they feel like they’re really communicating well,” Carroll said. “Sometimes the players can see stuff better than we can see it. They’re right there. They can feel it. They can look at the guy they’re going against.
“Fortunately, we have a guy that can help us with that. If you’re just calling them from up top (from the press-box level where Hurtt calls games) or on the sidelines, you’re missing some of the variables.
“It’s most valuable if a guy really has an awareness for it, which he does.”
Hurtt gives credit to Reed and his players for the improved rushing defense.
“Obviously we’ve got to coach it, but the players are what makes everything come to life,” Hurtt said.
“So the run defense, the big improvement, (is) the guys just understanding and attacking the line of scrimmage, which is what we’ve always wanted to do. Guys clearly understanding fits and clearly understanding how to leverage the football.
“So if you do get a play that kind of gets away, a 6-yard gain isn’t going to beat you. It’s ones that pop for 25 and 35 and 40 is what happened way too much last year.”
For Reed, his teammates’ buy-in to improving the run defense is making his job easier —and the Seahawks’ defense better, so far.
“Everybody’s focused. Everybody’s locked in. The preparation is phenomenal,” Reed said.
“You don’t have to say the same thing to these guys over and over. You tell them to do it one time, they’re going to do it. That’s what you need.
“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.”
