5 bold predictions for the Seattle Seahawks 2023 season

Seahawks nose guard Jarran Reed will get 8 sacks

The Seahawks tricked us this offseason. Most likely assumed Seattle brought back Jarran Reed after he played elsewhere for two years to play on one end of the 3-4 defensive front and his pass-rushing ability would help augment the pass rush overall. But oh no! Turns out Seattle signed Reed so that they could plug him in at nose guard to help stop the run game of the opposing team.

The weird part is that Reed hasn't exactly been great against the run for some years. According to Pro Football Focus, Reed has just been slightly better than average defending the run since 2020. And he was actually pretty bad in 2021. I am hoping that the Seattle coaching staff looked at Reed's run defense film the last couple of seasons instead of just assuming he played much like he did the last time he wore a Seahawks uniform.

In the preseason, Reed, in admittedly very limited snaps, looked really bad against the run. (Unfortunately, so did fellow 2023 free agent signee defensive tackle Dre'Mont Jones, but both Reed and Jones played just 8 snaps in the preseason and that's not enough to judge clearly.) Let's hope once the real games begin and Seattle truly starts scheming against other teams, Reed looks better against the run.

I do, however, have total faith that Reed will be good in pass rush. Playing next to Jones, who is very likely to get more attention from offensive lines than Reed, should free Reed up to use his skills against a single blocker. Reed has a career-high of 10.5 sacks, but that was way back before the earth completely cooled in 2018. I think he has his second-most productive year in 2023.