Jarran Reed has started the past 66 games that he’s played for the Seattle Seahawks. But he hasn’t played for the Seahawks since Jan. 9, 2021, when Seattle’s 2020 season ended in a 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC playoffs.

Reed will have the opportunity to extend that streak two seasons later after rejoining the Seahawks in free agency this offseason. Reed played for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2021 and the Green Bay Packers in 2022.

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“It’s home,” Reed said about signing with the Seahawks during an appearance on KIRO-AM in Seattle. “I was drafted to Seattle, played five years there, and it’s where I want to be. I’ve been gone for a minute, but I’m back and it feels right. If we was to win anything, there’s no better place to do it in than the place you start out at. …

“There were some other teams, but I kind of had it in my head what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be, especially at this point in my career. And it happened. They wanted me back, I wanted to come back and we made it happen.”

In 2022, Reed reached a career high with 52 tackles while recording 2.5 sacks, five tackles for loss, 14 quarterback hits, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries for Green Bay.

The Seahawks brought him back to Seattle with a two-year, $9 million contract that included a $3 million signing bonus and $4.19 million in guaranteed money.

Reed originally came to Seattle from Alabama as a second-round selection in the 2016 NFL Draft.

Seattle signed Reed to a two-year, $23 million contract extension after the 2019 season to keep him from entering free agency. But the Seahawks released him on March 26, 2021, with a year left on the deal.

According to reports at the time, Seattle wanted Reed to restructure the contract to reduce his salary-cap line of $13.975 million. Seattle’s proposal was to convert Reed’s base salary for the 2021 season from $9 million into a new contract with a base salary for the veteran minimum of $990,000 and a signing bonus of $8.01 million. The contract would include one or two seasons that would void at the end of the 2021 campaign, allowing the Seahawks to prorate the signing bonus over two or three seasons, which could have cut Reed’s salary-cap hit to as little as $3.66 million for 2021.

With contract talks open, Reed sought to work out a long-term contract with Seattle with the restructure, and when the Seahawks balked, he ended up on the open market.

“Having drafted somebody like that, you’re always loving the guy up,” Seattle general manager John Schneider said on his program on KIRO-AM this week. “We didn’t want him to go. He made a business decision. We had to make a business decision; he had to respond. He decided to go to Kansas City. That’s his prerogative. He went to Kansas City. He was in Green Bay.

“He started 14 games last year. He played great. And so it’s one of those deals where, again, you have you have that relationship. … He knows everybody, so our culture really attracts him.”

Reed joined Kansas City for a one-year, $5.5 million contract in hopes of playing in the Super Bowl. But the Chiefs’ two-season streak of reaching the NFL title game ended in 2021 when Kansas City lost to the Cincinnati Bengals 27-24 in overtime in the AFC Championship Game.

In 2022, Reed played for the Packers after signing a one-year, $3.25 million contract last offseason.

“Could he have gone somewhere else for more money? Absolutely,” Schneider said about Reed coming back to Seattle. “Did he want to come back here and be part of a special thing that we’re building right now and help us get over the top? … He was all fired up.”

The day before NFL teams could sign free agents, the Seahawks released defensive end Shelby Harris and defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson. The transactions cleared more than $13 million off Seattle’s salary-cap obligations for 2023, but it also took two defensive linemen off the roster who combined to play 1,127 defensive snaps in 2022.

When free agency started, the Seahawks brought in defensive end Dre’Mont Jones from the Denver Broncos and Reed to strengthen their defensive line. In 2022, only two teams yielded more rushing yards than the Seahawks.

“A couple of things I learned while I was gone from different types of coaches, different types of coaching staffs,” Reed said, “and I feel like it helped me become a better all-around player. And now I get to bring that back to Seattle. I plan on showcasing that this season. I’m not going to elaborate too much.”

During his career, Reed has 289 tackles, 27 sacks, 29 tackles for loss, 89 quarterback hits, seven pass breakups, six forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries in 106 regular-season games. In nine playoff games, Reed has registered three sacks.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.