Tag: Jarran Reed

Seahawks DL Jarran Reed discusses how playing for Mike Macdonald is different

Seahawks DL Jarran Reed discusses how playing for Mike Macdonald is different

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Jarran Reed returned to the team last offseason, signing a two-year contract worth $12.8 million. It represented Reed’s second stint with the Seahawks after previously playing for the franchise from 2016 to 2020. That made the former Alabama standout a loyal player to Pete Carroll, having played for coach Carroll throughout two separate stints.

That makes Reed an excellent candidate to discuss the differences surrounding the organization under first-year head coach Mike Macdonald. Reed watched Carroll grow and change throughout several seasons apart. He now has an opportunity to play for Macdonald.

Luckily, local media recently asked Reed about the changes under Macdonald’s leadership.

“It’s been really good,” Reed said about playing for Macdonald. “I say it all the time. I feel like he brought back old school football. No shots or anything, but I feel like that’s been missing for a little bit. We’re bringing the physicality back. We bring the mentality back of playing grown men football for all four quarters,” Reed concluded.

https://twitter.com/bcondotta/status/1830748929908187271

The Seahawks will certainly field a physical defense this season. As the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens last year, Macdonald’s defense recorded a league-leading 60 sacks. Reed’s approach fits Macdonald’s preferred aggressive demeanor.

That’s precisely why Reed, entering his ninth season, is embracing Macdonald’s leadership.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde on rotating his DL

Here’s what Durde had to say after yesterday’s OTAs practice about shifting his DL around.

While the Seahawks offensive line is by far the team’s biggest liability, the defensive line should be one of their greatest assets in the first year under new head coach Mike Macdonald. While Macdonald will be calling the defensive plays at first, he’ll eventually be handing those duties over to the relatively unknown Aden Durde, who’s his defensive coordinator.

Durde spent the last three years as the defensive line coach for Dallas, where he frequently rotated and moved his pieces around. Fans should expect more of the same this season in Seattle, where he has several versatile, powerful pieces to use up front. Here’s what Durde had to say after yesterday’s OTAs practice about shifting his DL around, per Brady Henderson at ESPN:

“That’s what good defensive lines are. Obviously where I can from… Right now, it’s kind of hard because we can’t go full-gas, but it’s what are people good at? What are their individual roles? How do they fit into the picture? What down and distance would they be good at and where do they excel? I really believe up front, it’s about creative a way of playing that enhances peoples’ ability in certain situations. There’s a couple of guys that really just flourish in every situation. There’s other guys like [NT Johnathan Hankins] or those guys that flourish in certain situations, and then how do you rotate them? We’ve got so much versatility.”

We won’t know for sure what the depth chart looks like until September, but for now we are projecting Leonard Williams and rookie Byron Murphy II to start at defensive end, flanking Jarran Reed at nose tackle. Hankins should be considered the next man up there, with Myles Adams and Mike Morris backing up Williams and Murphy.

More Seahawks Wire stories

99 photos from the Seattle Seahawks 2024 offseason so far

PFF grades for all 22 projected Seahawks starters in 2024

Salary cap space update for all 32 NFL teams after June 1

Seahawks 2024 OTAs: Sights, sounds from Monday practice

Jarran Reed says coaching change for Seahawks is refreshing

Truthfully, these Seahawks had been lagging since 2016.

Truthfully, these Seahawks had been lagging since 2016. While they remained competitive every year and have always been at least in the mix for a playoff spot, there’s been a definitive dropoff as far as their ability to make a deep push in a crowded field of NFC contenders. Promising as they might look before each season begins, they haven’t had a realistic chance of making the conference championship game since their comeback in Carolina fell short.

Instead of doing more half measures like firing their offensive and defensive coordinators, the organization decided to rip the bandaid off this offseason. While general manager John Schneider remained in place, head coach Pete Carroll was fired and replaced with Mike Macdonald, who had been the defensive coordinator for the Ravens the previous two years. And so the page was turned on the most successful coach in team history, and we wait to see what his successor can do.

For whatever it’s worth, the Seahawks players all have nothing but good things to say about their new head coach. Speaking with reporters after yesterday’s practice, nose tackle Jarran Reed said that he’s refreshing getting some new in with a different coaching and playing style.

Reed is entering the second and final year of the contract he signed last March. He is coming off a pretty strong season especially as a pass rusher, having earned the highest grade there (70.8) of his career. Reed posted seven sacks, 12 quarterback hits and 21 pressures.

Looking ahead, Reed should continue starting in the middle of Seattle’s defensive line, flanked by Leonard Wiliams on one side and Byron Murphy on the other. However, at 31 years old the odds are against him staying on longer than the end of next season.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Seahawks projections for 8 key offensive players in 2024

ESPN ranks all 32 teams’ safety units after the 2024 NFL draft

ESPN ranks all 32 teams’ corner units after the 2024 NFl draft

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Why defensive tackles matter more than ever

Why are defensive tackles more important in today’s NFL than they’ve ever been before? Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar are here with the answers.

In today’s NFL, with as much quick game as teams are using, it’s more important than ever to get to the quarterback as quickly as possible. Often, the shortest distance between the line of scrimmage and the quarterback is a straight line, and when your edge-rushers don’t have time to get home, it’s up to your interior defensive linemen to make those sacks and pressures happen.

It’s why the NFL has placed an increasing importance on those inside guys, and the money has gone up accordingly.

In 2019, there were 15 interior defensive linemen with in-season cap hits of more than $10 million, led by Aaron Donald at $17,108,000. In 2024, there are 22 such players. Now, a lot of those contracts are ones in which the cap hit happens to explode in this league year, but the point still stands – the NFL is placing an increased financial priority on interior defensive linemen. 

It’s also why NFL is paying more centers and guards more money and selecting more higher in the draft, as well.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into all the reasons why interior defensive linemen are of such crucial importance, the techniques they use to pester enemy quarterbacks, and the best players at creating pressure in the shortest possible time.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

You can also listen to and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Mike Macdonald raves about flexibility of Seahawks defensive line

Mike Macdonald raves about flexibility of Seahawks defensive line

The Seattle Seahawks have been trying to field a formidable defensive line for several years now. Unfortunately, their efforts have not been as fruitful as they’ve hoped, as the group up front has been bullied by opposing offenses for the better part of two full seasons now.

Hopefully, this is about to change. Seattle has slowly assembled a talented position group, headlined by Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed, Dre’Mont Jones and now Byron Murphy – the team’s first pick from the 2024 NFL draft. So far, new head coach Mike Macdonald is thrilled with what he has to work with. Macdonald recently raved about the flexibility he has at the position, per Brady Henderson at ESPN:

“We have a lot of guys… That’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about it, is you’re not going to know where guys are necessarily going to be all the time. We’ll have some really sweet ways to move guys around and have them in different spots based on the teams we’re going to play. A lot of flexibility going in, a lot of pass-rush opportunities, matchups, things we can manipulate. So all that’s on the table. It’ll be fun to see how it shakes out.”

Usually, when teams have openings at the head coach position, they are teams starting from the bottom. A team that cratered and is looking for a fresh start. The Seahawks were not of this typical mold. The cupboard is not bare, which is why they were probably able to land the best coaching candidate available in Macdonald.

There is no doubt this roster will likely undergo major changes this year, and in following seasons, as Macdonald molds it to his image. But for now, he is not starting from the ground up. There are legitimate building blocks in place for a solid foundation.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Updated Seahawks 90-man roster by jersey # with UDFAs

Russell Wilson gets another pay-day from selling home in Bellevue

53-man roster projection for Seahawks after the NFL draft

Seahawks announce they signed 16 undrafted free agents

2024 NFL draft grades for all 32 teams: Who got top marks?

33 Seahawks players who are set to become free agents in 2025

Here are 33 players who are set to become free agents next year.

The Seahawks are now officially in the post-Pete Carroll era, led by general manager John Schneider and head coach Mike Macdonald. While that will take some time getting used to the team already has made significant progress in reshaping the roster to fit the new regime. Next year that process will accelerate, as we will see even greater roster turnover. To get a better idea of what the team’s needs may be in next year’s draft, let’s take a look at who may no longer be on the roster at that time. Here are 33 players who are set to become free agents next year.

Grading each pick by the Seattle Seahawks in the 2024 NFL draft

Seahawks cuts continue with release of nose tackle Bryan Mone

Today the cuts continued, as the team announced nose tackle Bryan Mone has been released.

The Seahawks front office is in a slash and burn mood this week. Yesterday the team announced that safeties Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams as well as tight end Will Dissly had been released. All together those three moves saved Seattle around $24 million in cap space of the 2024 season.

Today the cuts continued, as the team announced nose tackle Bryan Mone has been released.

Cutting Mone saves another $5.39 million in cap room for 2024. Seattle now has around $41.6 million in cap space. Only 11 teams have more.

After going undrafted out of Michigan, Mone appeared in 41 games with the Seahawks from 2019-2022. He missed the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL.

As for the depth chart, Jarran Reed remains on top, but this news should guarantee more playing time for second-year tackle and primary backup Cameron Young next season.

More Seahawks Wire stories

17 newly released free agents who may interest Seattle

Seahawks fans react to Adams, Diggs and Dissly released

Seahawks trade down, target QB in this 2-round mock draft

2024 NFL draft: 7 realistic options for the Seahawks at 16

Best and worst PFF grades for Seattle from loss to Pittsburgh

The Seahawks lost to the Steelers because they couldn’t tackle – especially on the back end of their defense.

The Seahawks lost to the Steelers because they couldn’t tackle – especially on the back end of their defense. While Devon Witherspoon made one impressive TFL in the third quarter, otherwise he was completely hapless trying to bring down any ball-carriers for Pittsburgh. The same case was true for practically everybody else on Seattle’s secondary. Pro Football Focus agrees, giving them all gruesome grades as tacklers this week.

On the other side of the ball, the biggest issue was bad pass protection. While Geno Smith was able to mitigate the worst of it with a great game, all that pressure kept a low lid on what the offense was able to do. As is appropriate, PFF gave exceptionally poor pass blocking grades to the Seahawks offensive line, especially their offensive tackles.

Here are the top and bottom five performers on both sides of the ball this week, according to PFF’s grades.

Seahawks NT Jarran Reed comments on rematch with 49ers

The season is far from over for Seattle, but they risk letting it slip away.

The Seattle Seahawks are not in a good spot right now. At 6-6, they are currently the No. 8 seed in the NFC, which is one behind the similarly 6-6 Green Bay Packers. Right on their tails are the 6-6 Los Angeles Rams, who in a direct face off would have the tiebreaker over them.

It does not get any easier, as the Seahawks must take on the San Francisco 49ers in a crucial rematch. Defensive lineman Jarran Reed spoke to the media at how important this game is, and what it means to get back on track.

The season is far from over for Seattle, but they risk letting it slip away. The Packers face the lowly New York Giants, which should be a win for them. As for the Rams, they play the Baltimore Ravens, which should be a loss. Should LA and Seattle both lose, with Green Bay winning, the Seahawks would fall to the No. 9 spot behind the Rams.

Not to mention falling to below .500 on the year when they were 5-2 at one point this season.

More Seahawks Wire stories

Seahawks to wear white jerseys and blue pants vs 49ers

Seahawks Week 14 injury report: Geno Smith listed as QUESTIONABLE