Highlights of new Seahawks CB John Reid

In 2017, the Seattle Seahawks traded a seventh round pick to the New England Patriots for Justin Coleman. This little maneuver paid off, as he quickly became an impact player and went on to play in thirty-two games for Seattle during the next two seasons, making ten starts and recording three picks. In addition to proving to be a reliable option in the nickel, Coleman will always remain immortalized in many of our memories for his post pick-six antics in Seattle’s win over Dallas in 2017.

On Tuesday, Seattle made a move to swap a conditional 2023 seventh rounder to Houston for second-year cornerback John Reid. In 2020, Reid played in thirteen games and made one start. Per Pro Football Focus, he allowed eight catches on ten targets and only accumulated eighty-six coverage snaps over the course of the season. Hopefully he won’t be allowing an 80% completion rate should he take the field for the Seattle Seahawks, but obviously this is a very limited sample size. For comparison, Ugo Amadi amassed 429 coverage snaps while playing in fifteen games, allowing forty-five receptions on sixty targets. Reid is unlikely to challenge Amadi for playing time immediately, but may provide a low risk insurance policy with athletic upside as a backup at nickel and right cornerback. Early reports of his performance have been positive.

Furthermore, Michael-Shawn Dugar of the Athletic reports that Carroll had this to say when asked about the trade for Reid:

“Has really good speed,” Carroll said. “Been an active player. We’re continuing to seek depth and he had played for (assistant special teams coach) Tracy (Smith) in Houston, so he had some background on him. We knew what we were getting, so it helps us out.”

The words “depth” and “special teams” jump out at me, indicating that Reid is likely competing for a spot on the roster more than competing for playing time at the moment. But the Seahawks obviously thought highly enough of him to make a move to make him move (*from Texas to Washington). And this has worked out pretty alright for the team before.

John Reid shares another similarity with the above mentioned Coleman; both players — along with second year Seahawk DJ Reed and rookie Tre Brown — represent a break from the once rigid measurable requirements for Seattle DBs. Specifically, we have heard many times over how DJ Reed helped to usher in a change in Seattle’s previously held notion, as even Coleman played almost primarily on the inside. When Carroll indicated that rookie Tre Brown would indeed get an opportunity to compete for time outside, this provided confirmation for many of the philosophical shift, and the latest move to add Reid to the roster lends further support; evidently, Seattle isn’t as concerned with “wingspan” or “height” as they once were. Adding even more support to this, the team made the concurrent move to release veteran Pierre Desir — a player who much more closely resembled a prototypical Seahawk cornerback.

Getting back to Reid, specifically, what does he bring to the table? While his NFL game film is limited, he displayed enough while playing at Penn State for Houston to select him with a late fourth round pick — three spots ahead of when Seattle took DeeJay Dallas and seven ahead of Alton Robinson. And from what he has shown in college and his limited time in the NFL, he is athletic and willing to be physical, and has the potential to be a contributor in the pros. Below is a small but decent collection of film for Reid, and from what I see this is at least enough to get a little bit hyped about his arrival in Seattle. Hopefully we may have the opportunity to see him take the field when the Seahawks close out the preseason against the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night.