Packers to sign DL Jarran Reed following a visit to Green Bay

Reed has started 80 games for the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks over his NFL career.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Green Bay Packers will be signing defensive lineman Jarran Reed to a one-year deal. Reed spent last season with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract in 2021. He started 17 games for the Chiefs and played 713 snaps for Kansas City defensively (64 percent), which was the fifth-most of any Chiefs defender and the most of any front-seven defender on the team. Reed previously took a visit with the Cincinnati Bengals last week.

Prior to 2021, Reed had played his entire career with the Seattle Seahawks, who drafted him 49th overall in 2016. Over five seasons in Seattle, Reed started in 80 games and recorded 22 tackles for a loss and 24.5 sacks. His effort was rewarded with a two-year, $23 million extension in 2020, but he was released as a cap casualty in the 2021 offseason.

In 2019, Reed, following his 10.5-sack breakout season, was suspended by the NFL for the first six games of the year for a violation of the personal conduct policy. While he was not charged or arrested, the league confirmed the suspension was due to a 2017 incident in which a woman claimed that Reed had assaulted her at 3 AM. The Bellevue (Washington) police initially opened a domestic violence case based on the incident but Reed was never charged.

When the announcement was made that the NFL had suspended Reed, despite the local police failing to charge Reed, the local media questioned why Reed wasn’t charged and dissected the police report in public. According to the police report, Reed allegedly grabbed the woman by the throat, dragged her across the bedroom floor and stairs by her feet and ankles, chased her and broke open a bathroom door before being held back by people identified as other Seahawks employees.

The signing of Reed gives the Green Bay Packers a fifth interior defensive lineman on the roster, following the loss of Tyler Lancaster (expiring contract) and Kingsley Keke (waived) since January.