How Jarran Reed has quietly been critical to the Seahawks’ defensive resurgence

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RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks are slowly coming into their own defensively after a shockingly underwhelming showing in their season opener.

One of the reasons for the improvement during this three-game win streak has been the play of defensive tackle Jarran Reed, who signed this offseason on a two-year deal to be the team’s starting nose tackle.

Reed, 30, is in his second stint with the Seahawks. He was selected by Seattle in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft and played well enough to earn a two-year, $23 million contract when his rookie deal expired. The Seahawks reluctantly released Reed in March 2021, and after he spent the next two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers, coach Pete Carroll’s staff was thrilled to have him back in the building this year.

Through four games, Reed has given the Seahawks exactly what they were hoping for in terms of performance and presence.

Seattle’s defense fell apart in the second half of its 30-13 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1. That performance partly explains why the unit ranks 18th in expected points added per play and 22nd in EPA per dropback entering its Week 6 matchup at Cincinnati on Sunday (all stats provided by TruMedia unless stated otherwise).

The last three games — wins over the Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers and New York Giants — have been closer to the type of ball Seattle’s defense wants to play.

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Seattle's defense sends a message with dominating MNF win

“I really liked the last three weeks,” Carroll said. “The second half of the first game, that still kills me that we were the way we were.”

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Since the second-half debacle in Week 1, Seattle ranks 12th in EPA per dropback, sixth in EPA per play and No. 1 in success rate against the run. It’s a small sample, but the difference has nonetheless been notable, even when adjusting for opponent quality (the Giants and Panthers have two of the worst offenses in the league). And because everything starts up front, looking at Seattle’s defense means analyzing the play of Reed.

Reed is listed at 306 pounds, much smaller than his predecessor, Al Woods, who was believed to be playing well over the 330 pounds listed on Seattle’s roster last season. The difference in their skill sets has shown up thus far. Reed doesn’t spend most of his time aligned directly over the center the way Woods used to, and he doesn’t come off the field on third downs. The latter is important because it allows Reed to have more of an impact on the quarterback.

Reed is one of six Seahawks with two sacks. He leads the team with six quarterback hits and has the fifth-highest pressure rate at 14.2 percent. Removing blitzers from the rankings, Reed is second on the team behind outside linebacker Boye Mafe (14.4 percent), who leads the league in pass rush win rate among edge rushers, according to ESPN.

Reed’s pressure rate ranks 40th among defenders with at least 50 pass rush snaps, and he’s sandwiched between New York Jets All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and perennial Pro Bowl defensive end Cameron Jordan in New Orleans. Reed ranks sixth among defensive tackles in ESPN’s pass rush win rate (19.0 percent), one spot behind Williams and ahead of the Tennessee Titans’ Jeffery Simmons, a Pro Bowler in each of the last two seasons.

Double team rate at defensive tackle (x) by pass rush win rate at defensive tackle (y), through Week 5.

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Beyond his own impact on the quarterback, Reed is the primary communicator up front, in charge of calling stunts and games. Seattle was shaky in that area against the Rams, but since then, Carroll said, “Our batting average is much better with our calls.” The Seahawks are tied for fifth in the league with 16 sacks.

“I can’t tell you how important J-Reed has been to us,” Carroll said. “He’s such a veteran that he really commands the calls and the system and the game plan. He’s a big factor. As the guys communicate with him, they seem to get more well-versed to take advantage of what we’re seeing. Sometimes it’s sets, alignments and formations and (down and distances). It’s a lot of stuff for guys to handle. Jarran is really good at it.”

Calling the games is a small yet critical job. Front sevens can’t just rely on rushing straight at the player across from them, so they use games and stunts to throw curveballs at the opposition. But there’s an art to knowing when to call those stunts based on the situation, alignment and what the offensive line has planned. It takes a veteran to read those situations and be the quarterback of the D-line. So, it helps that this is Reed’s eighth season and his fifth with defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt, who used to be Reed’s position coach.

“Some guys are just getting to the next play; he’s already thinking of what we could do,” Carroll said. “He’s strategizing, he’s got a plan, he’s got a feel for it that they work out during the week and try to execute during the game. It’s the experience and the feel, and there’s a poise to that, too, because there’s not a lot of time there from when he gets his information that he has to communicate.

“The part that I think is really obvious: He commands their respect. They’ll do what he tells them at the last second, and they’ll take advantage of it as best they can.”

In Seattle’s 11-sack performance against the Giants in Week 4, the team threw everything at quarterback Daniel Jones, including looping rushers in obvious passing situations. One of Bobby Wagner’s two sacks in that game was on a stunt, the linebacker looping around edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu while Reed ate up two defenders, giving Wagner a free run at Jones on third-and-7.

Just Bobby Wagner being him.

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“(Reed) has a really good understanding of what the offensive line tries to do from a blocking scheme perspective,” Wagner said. “And he’s really, really good at communicating that to all the D-linemen. You can hear him sometimes before (the snap) call out some plays, call out protections. That really allows the guys playing next to him to play fast.”

Last season, Hurtt called plays from the sideline. This year, he’s up in the booth (Carroll requested the change in the offseason). Because Hurtt is so far away from the action, it’s nice to have a trustworthy veteran presence on the field to be an extension of the coaching staff. There’s a degree of latitude given to those players, knowing that they’ll pick the right spots to take advantage of what they feel. Free safety Quandre Diggs is that extension for the secondary, Wagner is that player in the middle of it all and Reed is that guy up front.

“Sometimes the players see stuff better than we can see it,” Carroll said. “They’re right there, they can feel it, they can look at the guy they’re going against. Fortunately, we have a guy (in Reed) who can help us with that. If you’re just calling it from up top or on the sidelines, you’re missing some of the variables. It’s most valuable if a guy has an awareness for it, which he does.”

Having Reed back in Seattle has been arguably just as important as re-signing Wagner in the sense that their experience is showing up in ways that aren’t always quantifiable. Being able to sniff out plays based on formation, down and distance or other tells, then relay that information to teammates, has played a significant role in Seattle correcting its mistakes and improving its defense each week.

“All of those little subtleties make you a little bit better and a little bit more apt to make the play that’s coming at you,” Carroll said.

Seattle’s defense still has a lot of growing to do — particularly on third down, where the team is among the worst in the league — but there’s reason to be optimistic about the unit’s trajectory. In addition to having promising young talent, Seattle’s veterans are leading the way with their presence and their playmaking, just as the team intended entering this season.

(Photo: Joe Nicholson / USA Today)