Jarran Reed on his return to Seattle: 'It's like a breath of fresh air'
Jarran Reed gave insight into what he feels on returning to the Seattle Seahawks.
Despite all the changes the Seattle Seahawks made during the early portion of the offseason, through free agency and the 2023 NFL Draft, they brought back some familiar faces.
One of those faces is All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner, a future Hall of Famer. Another familiar face is defensive tackle Jarran Reed, who played for the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs over the last two seasons.
Before leaving town the first time, Reed was a second-round draft pick in the 2016 NFL Draft. He then spent five seasons playing for Seattle before the two sides parted ways. But in his return, Reed is looking at his second run with the Seahawks as a reprieve and a return to where he feels most at home.
“Man, it’s like a breath of fresh air,” Reed told Mike Salk during Friday’s Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports. “I get to come back to where it all started and hopefully go chase one of these rings. That’s the dream, especially to win it where you started. But it’s a goal that I want to get to."
Throughout free agency, Reed knew he wanted to return to the Seahawks. The return felt like it was meant to be because Seattle was in desperate need to shake up its defensive line play that was run all over during the 2022 NFL season.
During his time with the Packers and Chiefs, Reed learned the football philosophies that lead to success: Consistent practice, patience, and playing with effort on every down, he said.
But when probed about what stop on his career he learned the most about playing football at a high level, Reed credits that to Pete Carroll during his first tenure with the Seahawks.
“How to practice, how to practice fast, how to believe in yourself, how to compete, how to be relentless, how to never give up, how to always keep hope,” he said. “Because playing in games, sometimes playing in games you may think it’s going one way and you never know how it ends. You’ve always got to keep believing and you’ve got to keep competing. That is so true. You know, you got to keep on going because you never know what will happen at any moment, any down, any play, any game.”
Though Reed had to go elsewhere when he was younger, he found his way back to Seattle. And with the return, the veteran defensive tackle feels like a much-needed breath of fresh air.
“Leaving, I was still kind of young. So going to Kansas City, I had to learn a whole new style of coaching, a style of football from my position coaches and from the defensive coordinator. It was all different. I had to learn a different way and I had to play the way they wanted me to play,” Reed said. “And taking that and going to Green Bay, I was kind of mixed back into what I was being taught beforehand. And so just meshing that all together and bringing that all together, I think coming here now I’m a better all-around player, the game has slowed down tremendously for me and I’m just trying to be the greatest I can be for the Seahawks, and go out there and hopefully play my best.”
You can listen to the full interview here:
