Jarran Reed Turned Down Millions to Leave Seahawks, Join Chiefs

With the ink still drying on his new one-year contract with the Chiefs, new details continue to arise about Jarran Reed's fallout with the Seahawks and why the player and team opted to part ways last week.

Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, Seattle offered a restructured contract that still would have paid Reed more than $8 million per year with void years added to the deal to spread the cap hit over multiple seasons. Such an arrangement would have lowered his $13.9 million salary cap hit by turning his 2021 base salary into a guaranteed signing bonus.

However, as has previously been reported, Reed desired a new long-term deal spanning at least three seasons. The Seahawks, on the other hand, weren't interested in negotiating such a deal at this time given other upcoming contract obligations and held firm in their stance, which irked the former second-round pick.

Feeling unwanted by the organization that drafted him in 2016, even with his agent informing him he risked losing millions of dollars, Reed informed the team that he wanted to go elsewhere with talks reaching an impasse and that he had no intentions of signing off on a restructure. Unable to find a trade partner, Seattle released him outright on March 26, creating nearly $9 million in cap room.

Within two days, Reed already had an agreement in place on a one-year contract with Kansas City, reuniting him with former teammate Frank Clark and joining forces with All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones. Under the terms of the deal, he will make $5 million with the potential to earn an additional $2 million in incentives.

By signing this new deal, as noted by Garafolo, Reed left a significant chunk of change on the table. But with the salary cap expected to increase significantly next year, he will be banking on a big season playing on a loaded defensive line alongside Clark and Jones to help him maximize his value as a free agent in 2022.

As for the Seahawks, they quickly helped fill the void left by Reed's impending departure by re-signing veteran Al Woods to a one-year deal. Earlier this offseason, the team also gave Poona Ford a massive raise on a new two-year contract, keeping him tied to the team through the 2022 season.

While some may question Reed's decision to walk away from up to $3 million by forcing his way out of Seattle, honest discussions took place behind the scenes. In the prime of his career, it's understandable why the player wanted long-term security. At the same time, it's also understandable why the organization didn't want to make a three or four year commitment with other contract negotiations such as Jamal Adams and DK Metcalf coming up in the near future.

Though the ending didn't unfold how Reed or the Seahawks would have likely preferred, from a business perspective, both sides deserve some credit for orchestrating a clean split when it became evident a solution wasn't going to be agreed upon.