Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed had two sacks against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, giving him 10.5 on the season. That makes him one of only three defensive tackles in Seahawks history to record double-digit sacks in a season, joining Seattle legend Cortez Kennedy and Hall of Famer John Randle.
It’s a pretty good feather in the cap for a player who fell to the middle of the second round of the 2016 NFL draft because teams viewed him as a “run-stopper” without much of a thought given to him one day becoming an elite pass rusher. For at least the 2018 season, he’s been just that.
Reed had two sacks against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 3, the team that the Seahawks face in the wild card round of the playoffs, and two sacks against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 15. The list of DTs this year with at least two sacks in three games is short, and includes Aaron Donald, Geno Atkins, DeForest Buckner, and Reed. Perhaps Denico Autry of the Indianapolis Colts, if you view him as a DT.
Consider that Ndamukong Suh’s career high for sacks in a single season is 10, and he’s only done that once.
Also getting two sacks against the Cardinals was Frank Clark, giving him 14 on the year. That ties Patrick Kerney (2007) for the most sacks by a Seattle player in a single season in this century. Clark also had three games this season with at least two sacks, making Clark and Reed one of the best defensive line duos in the NFL in 2018. Not many other teams had teammates accomplish the feat, but you’d find the likes of J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney, Ryan Kerrigan and Jonathan Allen among them.
Clark is a free agent after the season but it is highly unlikely that the Seahawks wouldn’t give him the franchise tag if they had to. Reed will be a free agent in 2020 unless Seattle gives him an extension first, which I would expect.