There is no question that the Seattle Seahawks defense is going to look very different when the 2018 season begins in just a few weeks. Perhaps no changes are more obvious than on the defensive line, where veterans Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett, Sheldon Richardson and Dwight Freeney from last season are all gone.
Bennett and Avril played on the edge, but Freeney and Richardson’s departures leave a big hole in the middle. Two returners, Jarran Reed and Nazair Jones, will compete with free agent additions Tom Johnson and Shamar Stephen to (literally) fill the holes up front.
Reed, a third-year man out of Alabama, has impressed the Seahawks with his toughness and smarts, and has also showed a quiet leadership that will certainly benefit the young club.
“He’s there every day which is showing that toughness that the good d-linemen over time have always shown,” defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. stated on Monday. “He’s hardnose, he’s smart, he’s really passionate about what he does.”
“He’s like the middle, he’s the heartbeat, he’s the mainstay in the middle that we all depend on. He’s done everything and more that we’ve asked.”
Reed is one of the few returners who logged major playing time last season, having started 15 games. He racked up 1.5 sacks and 45 combined tackles, numbers he hopes to improve upon in 2018.
“I want to get better at everything,” Reed said after practice on Monday. “I want to be the best I can for my teammates, to be more available to those guys.”
Reed described himself as a quiet leader, saying it’s ‘less talking’ and more about letting his play ‘speak for itself’.
While he’s no doubt happy to embrace a leadership role on a young defensive line, Reed also believes that his veteran teammates can and will take on leadership roles of their own.
“Everybody can be a leader in their own way,” Reed stated. “Not just only myself, Frank (Clark), Tom (Johnson), Shamar (Stephen), and some of the older guys we had, I think we all do the collective job well.”
“A lot of guys got to step to up and take over that platform.”
