By Bob Condotta / The Seattle Times
One of Pete Carroll’s core tenets as part of his “Always Compete” philosophy is to never close the door to anything that might help the Seattle Seahawks win.
That includes bringing back former players, no matter the circumstance of their departure.
Still, the odds that Jarran Reed might someday be one of those former players who would return seemed slimmer than most when the team cut ties with him in the spring of 2021.
In trying to manage a salary cap that was 8% less than the year before due to revenue shortfalls from the COVID-19-affected season of 2020, the Seahawks asked Reed if he would agree to a simple restructure of his contract that would give the team some cap relief.
Specifically, the team wanted to take $8 million of his $9 million salary for that season — which was the final year on his contract — and turn it into a signing bonus and add a void year or two to spread out the cap hit into future seasons. Reed would have gotten the same amount of money and still been a free agent at the end of the year.
Reed, a second-round draft choice out of Alabama in 2016, countered by asking for an extension, something Seattle didn’t want to do — the Seahawks had re-signed him to a two-year deal worth up to $23 million the year before.
With the two sides at loggerheads, the Seahawks decided to try to trade Reed.
When the Seahawks couldn’t find any takers after a week or so, they released him.
Reed ultimately signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs for $5 million, barely half what he would have made with Seattle.
And if the door might have still been open for Reed to return someday, it’s hard to imagine much more than a sliver of light was visible through the crack.
But there Reed was Wednesday, talking via Zoom to media members who cover the Seahawks, happily back in the Seattle fold after re-signing with the team last month as part of the attempt to remake the defensive line in the wake of a disappointing defensive season in 2022.
“When I left, I always knew there was a possibility of coming back,” Reed said. “It was just when.”
Reed calls the decision he made in 2021 all about business and nothing more.
“That’s the part about this game,” Reed said. “It’s a football side and a business side. At that particular time on my end, I just didn’t feel like the ends were meeting. So they had a decision to make; I had a decision to make. Obviously, I made that one and they had to make theirs. But you know, it’s no hard feelings. It was just all business, and eventually it led me back here.”
Reed returns after spending one year in Kansas City and then 2022 in Green Bay, where he played on a one-year deal worth $3.25 million.
While he hoped to be back, Reed said he really had no idea Seattle would be interested when the free agent signing period began the second week of March.
“I had no clue,” he said. “But free agency started and we got the call.”
If Reed said he was happy to have a chance to come back, he still kept it businesslike, also considering a few other options, saying, “I wanted to make the best decision for me” and not one just based out of emotion.
But the chance to come back — and Seattle’s offer of a two-year deal worth up to $9 million with a guarantee of $4.1 million, each representing a raise from the deal he had with Green Bay — eventually won out.
Speaking at the league meetings last month, Carroll said Reed’s return is just the latest of what he hopes has always been a consistent goal of fostering relationships that can weather the inevitable stormy waters of the NFL.
“If it’s a real relationship where you really care about people, then there’s going to be some ups and downs and some ins and outs and all,” Carroll said. “But if you really care, you’ll be there at the end of it, and here’s another example.”
Said Reed of why he wanted to be back: “It’s just more than football (here). Some organizations it’s strictly football, and they want you to be a certain type of way, act a certain way, look a certain way, dress a certain way. Here they just let you be you.”
Now for that to pay off on the field.
Reed is 31 and in his eighth season.
But he’s been as durable as can be, having missed just two games due to injury in his career.
He’s also been versatile.
He played tackle in what was predominantly a 4-3 scheme during his first five years with the Seahawks.
But he played end in Green Bay’s 3-4 last season, a scheme similar to that which Seattle has moved to under defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt.
And he appears pegged to start at one end spot in 2023 with free agent signee Dre’Mont Jones at the other end.
Seattle general manager John Schneider, though, said Reed could be used all over the line, saying at the league meetings last month that, “He’ll be an end and a nose if we need it.”
Reed says he’s ready for whatever. “I’m well-equipped with playing any kind of scheme.”
What he mostly wants to do is get the Seahawks back to playing defense the way they did when he arrived.
As a rookie in 2016, Reed joined a defense that was coming off a streak of four consecutive years allowing the fewest points in the NFL, a streak longer than any other team in league history during the Super Bowl era.
Wednesday, Reed rattled off the long list of names that was part of that defense, including linebacker Bobby Wagner, who also is making what he hopes will be a triumphant return in 2023.
“When you played the Seahawks, you knew that you were playing a dominant defense,” Reed said. “And that’s what we’ve got to come with, what we’ve got to bring this season, that we are coming to play. Hands-down, there’s no ifs, ands or buts about it — you are going to have to play all four quarters.”
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