The Seattle Seahawks’ defensive improvement led a second-half turnaround during the 2024 NFL season. In 2025, Seahawks defensive lineman Jarran Reed hopes the unit will have a season-long role in propelling Seattle back to the playoffs.

“I think that everybody, well, my side of the ball, wants the defense to be the reason why,” Reed said. “Defense wins championships. Offense wins games. That just is what it is. We want to put the team on our back, and we want to be the one and want to be the reason why we win games.”

The Seahawks went from 25th in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed among the NFL’s 32 teams in 2023 to 11th in points allowed and 14th in yards allowed in 2024. But the improvement didn’t happen all at once.

When Seattle reached the bye week of its 2024 season, the Seahawks had a 4-5 record and were allowing an average of 24.6 points and 357.6 yards per game.

After its open date, Seattle won six of its eight games and allowed an average of 18.4 points and 304.8 yards per game.

The surge still didn’t get the Seahawks into the playoffs in their first season since 2009 without Pete Carroll as their head coach. Former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald took the reins in Seattle in 2024, but the 10-7 record in his inaugural season left the Seahawks as the only NFC team with a winning record that missed the postseason.

“Just communication and be able to play faster than what we was playing,” Reed said about his team’s improvement in 2024. “When we came in at first, it is a big playbook, so it’s a lot to learn. I think that now, just banging off last year, growing what we already know, coming in and then redoing it. It’s like reading the same book over and over again. And so now we get to go out on the field and just play fast. And I think that plays a huge part into being successful in executing our plays.”

Reed said the aim of Seattle’s offseason program was “to continue building off that.”

“Definitely getting more comfortable,” Reed said during OTAs. “It’s a big playbook, so definitely being able to just play fast right now, I think is the main thing. And I think that’s the thing with everybody, especially the back end.”

While the players learned the playbook in 2024, the coaches learned the players, Reed said, helping to spark improvement.

“They’re more intentional with what they expect from us,” Reed said about Macdonald’s second-year staff. “I think everybody kind of just deflated the balloon a little bit because last year, we weren’t holding our breath, but nobody knew what to expect. It was a new staff, and for us, we were new players. And for us, to them, it was new coaching staff. So everybody had to learn each other, learn our likes, what we like, how we play. And I think it’s the main thing.

“It seems like everybody now is just meshing and jelling together. And I’m really excited to see how this season goes.”

The Seahawks have completed their offseason program. They return from summer break for training camp when the rookies report on July 15 and the veterans come in on July 22. Seattle starts its three-game preseason schedule on Aug. 7 against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Reed is preparing for his 10th NFL season and eighth with the Seahawks after signing a three-year, $22 million contract in March that kept him from reaching free agency this offseason.

Among former Alabama players who spent their entire NFL careers as defensive linemen, his 139 games is tied for fourth with Jess Richardson, and he could be up to second by the end of the 2025 season. Mike Pitts played in 169 NFL regular-season games, Marty Lyons 147 and Cornelius Griffin 146.

Reed also could become the Alabama alumnus with the most games with Seattle during 2025, too. Reed has played 105 games with the Seahawks. The only former Crimson Tide player ahead of Reed on Seattle’s all-time games list is running back Shaun Alexander with 119.

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