Seahawks agree to three-year deal with defensive tackle Jarran Reed
SEATTLE – The Seahawks took care of keeping both of their biggest pending free agents Sunday, agreeing to new contract with middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV a few hours after also agreeing to a deal with defensive tackle Jarran Reed.
A source confirmed to the Seattle Times that Jones, 25, agreed to a deal reported to be three years and worth up to $33 million with $15 million guaranteed.
Reed earlier agreed to a three-year contract reported to be worth up to $22 million with $8 million guaranteed.
Jones and Reed were the two most important of the team’s own free agents to re-sign and Seattle got both kept in the fold on the eve of the beginning of the free agent negotiating period Monday at 9 a.m.
Jones was acquired in a trade with Tennessee in October and immediately stabilized Seattle’s middle linebacker position as he also took over wearing the “green dot helmet” and relaying the play calls from the coaches to the rest of the players.
The deal with Jones came in the wake of a few other pending free agent inside linebackers over the last few days.
That included Kansas City’s Nick Bolton agreeing to a three-year deal reported to be worth $45 million earlier on Sunday and Tampa Bay’s Lavonte David agreeing to a one-year deal worth up to $10 million. Former Seahawk Bobby Wagner also re-signed with Washington earlier in the week on a one-year deal worth up to $9.5 million.
Most generally slotted Jones as likely to get a deal somewhere in between the range of Bolton, generally regarded as the top ILB who could hit the market, and veterans such as David and Wagner.
Jones said several times late last season he wanted to stay with the Seahawks. A report the last weekend of the regular season, though, stated his agents wanted him to first test the market.
Both sort of happened. Jones indeed stayed, but only after it became clear what the market was for inside linebackers with the recent signings.
It was confirmed last week that Jones had a surgery after the season to clean up some nagging knee issues that dated to the 2023 season. But the surgery was not considered serious and Jones is expected to be back by June or so.
Jones came to Seattle as the team remade its inside linebacking position on the fly following some shaky defensive outings in October, first trading Jerome Baker to Tennessee for Jones and a 2025 fourth-round pick, then two weeks later cutting Tyrel Dodson.
Dodson began the season as the middle linebacker and Baker on the weakside. Jones took over for Dodson in the middle for the final 10 games of the season, while rookie Tyrice Knight then stepped into the weakside linebacker for the last eight games of the year.
With Jones and Knight manning the ILB spots, Seattle went 6-2 in the final eight games while allowing the fourth fewest yards per game (304.8) and the fifth-fewest points (18.4).
Jones began the 2024 season with the Rams, the team that drafted him in the third round in 2021 and with him he won a Super Bowl ring a rookie.
But he was dealt to Tennessee on Aug. 26 along with a 2026 sixth-round pick for a 2025 fifth-round pick due in part to the Rams’ apparent unwillingness to want to offer him a contract extension.
He was then traded by Tennessee after the Titans began the year 1-5 and decided to rebuild.
Jones said all of that movement wore on him and his family — his son Ernest V was born in July — and that he hoped to make Seattle a permanent home.
“I’m going to do whatever I can to be on this team for the long haul if that’s where they see me fitting in,’’ Jones said during his introductory press conference the week of his trade to Seattle. “From there, we work out everything else.”
Sunday, it got worked out and Seattle now has found the player who the team hopes will now provide the kind of stability in the middle of the defense they had for so long with Wagner.
“Yeah, I think he needs to be back here,’’ safety Julian Love said the last week of the regular season. “I don’t know anything what’s going on upstairs (where the team’s football personnel offices are) but it’s clear and evident when he got here our defense got what it was missing. And it was different from the day he stepped in the building.”
The 32-year-old Reed has emerged as not only one of the team’s most consistent players on the defensive line but also a leader in the locker room since returning to the team in 2023.
While full details of the contract were not immediately available, Reed appears to be getting something of a raise.
He played last year on the second season of a two-year deal he signed in 2023 that was worth up to $9.5 million.
Reed was a second-round pick of the Seahawks in 2016 out of Alabama and played five years for Seattle before moving on to the Chiefs in 2021 and then to the Packers the following year.
Reed said several times last season he hoped to stay with the Seahawks and end his career in Seattle.
Reed, who plays mostly tackle but also can play the base end position in some packages, played 680 snaps last season, the sixth-most on the defense and second-most of any lineman after Leonard Williams.
“I certainly hope so,’’ coach Mike Macdonald said last month at the NFL combine when asked if Reed would return in 2025. “I mean I’m confident on how J-Reed feels about us and he knows how we feel about him.’’
Keeping Reed loomed as a priority given some of the other changes or potential changes on the defensive line. Seattle last week released ends Dre’Mont Jones and Roy Robertson-Harris while nose tackle Johnathan Hankins can be an unrestricted free agent.