Jarran Reed ready to help Seahawks dominate

The Seattle Seahawks may have gotten the biggest steal of the draft in nose tackle Jarran Reed. The big run-stuffer will be able to contribute from day 1.

The Seattle Seahawks appear to have gotten a major steal with the 49th overall pick in the draft. Jarran Reed, the big nose tackle out of Alabama, fell much farther than anyone in the draft media suspected he would. The result was an incredible bargain for the Seahawks.

The Seahawks desperately needed to get a big-time nose tackle in the draft. Brandon Mebane signed with the Chargers in free agency, leaving a massive hole in Seattle’s defense (both literally and figuratively). Reed is exactly the type of player the Seahawks needed.

Run Stuffing

As a run-stuffer, Reed is a prototypical 2-gap nose tackle. He is very adept at the stack, shed, tackle combination that makes those players successful. In fact, his technique is often textbook in nature.

The contrast on this play between Reed and fellow draft prospect A’Shawn Robinson is striking. Both stack and shed, but Robinson has no idea where the football is. He actually sheds his blocker in a way that takes himself out of the play.

Reed kept his eyes up, and ended up making the tackle. That level of awareness is required if a player is going to 2-gap regularly. Reed succeeded where Robinson failed.

This next play is another great example. Watch how he drifts to the play-side before shedding his block.

Georgia is trying to use zone blocking concepts to create running lanes. By moving laterally to his left before shedding the block, Reed prevents the usual cutback lanes from being generated by these concepts.

Pass Rush

The book on Reed pre-draft was that he was exclusively a run-stuffer. While that might end up being true, Reed shows flashes of the athleticism necessary to be able to generate inside pressure.

Unfortunately, Alabama’s defensive scheme didn’t ask Reed to do so very often. He was asked to 2-gap almost exclusively, rather than having him try and get through a gap and to the QB. Along the way, the scouting reports drifted from “he doesn’t” to “he can’t” simply because it doesn’t show up on tape.

That doesn’t mean that he’ll be a great pass rusher either. We simply don’t know at this point. When I see plays like the one below, I’m am optimistic that he won’t be a liability against the pass.

Overall, I am extremely excited to see Reed in training camp. I believe he will lessen the blow of losing Brandon Mebane in free agency, while having a reasonable chance into developing into an even better player than Mebane was.

Next: The importance of Michael Bennett

With Reed out there at NT, the Seahawks defense is once again ready to dominate.