Grading every Seahawks 2023 free agent signing so far

Seahawks sign defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones

The Seahawks clearly thought their defensive line was not at all good enough last season, and they were right. The defensive front helped next-to-nothing when it came to pressuring opposing quarterbacks, but worse, they couldn’t stop the run. If a team is playing a 3-4 base but the defensive tackles and ends can’t stop the run? Then those players have to go.

This is where Jones comes in. He is only 26 years old and can definitely pressure opposing quarterbacks. Seattle clearly has high hopes for him as they are paying Jones up to $51,530,000 over three seasons. His cap hit in 2024 will be $18,176,666 and it will be $23,176,668 in 2025. Basically, if Jones doesn’t work out after 2023, he won’t be back in 2024.

Grade: A

But Jones should be really good. He needs to work on being better against the run, but his ability to pressure quarterbacks and play the run decently enough gives Seattle a defensive lineman closer to what Michael Bennett could do than any other player they have had recently.

Seahawks sign defensive tackle Jarran Reed

Reed is a familiar face for 12s. He was drafted by the Seahawks and played with the team from 2016 through 2020. One season he had 10.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss. Reed hasn’t come close to having that number of sacks again during his career so that shouldn’t be expected in 2023. That said, he has had double-digit quarterback hits in four of the last five seasons so that should be expected.

Grade: B+

But Reed should be better against the run than Jones. That’s important as Reed will be lined up a bit more inside than Jones, but having Jones also allows Reed to see more one-on-one blocking which should increase Reed’s quarterback pressures. The contract will only pay him $10.5 million over two years so even that is a team-friendly deal.