By Gregg Bell | McClatchy News Service
RENTON — How good has D.J. Reed been for Seattle, pretty much out of nowhere?
Reed’s been a revelation.
Pete Carroll is even likening him to Seahawks royalty.
“He is one of the guys [who] reminds me of Doug Baldwin,” Seattle’s coach said on his weekly radio show earlier this week.
Baldwin, the beloved wide receiver, was notorious for playing angry his entire, self-made, Pro Bowl and Super Bowl-champion career until his retirement following the 2018 season. He was — probably still is — ticked no one in the NFL drafted him out of Stanford in 2011.
Carrying a chip? Baldwin, and now Reed, have one the size of Mount Rainier.
“Just plays with this marvelous attitude that drives just crazy stuff, just craziness,” Carroll said of Reed at left cornerback, nickel, safety and punt returner the last seven weeks.
“He’s got it,” Carroll of an edge. “I’m kind of happy to know that he knows it.”
Oh, yes, Reed knows it.
This summer the 24-year-old was a reserve safety with the San Francisco 49ers. He tore his pectoral muscle. Reed said Niners general manager John Lynch told him the team’s medical staff determined he wasn’t going to be healthy enough to play this season. In August, San Francisco waived Reed with an injury designation, intending to put him on injured reserve.
Seattle general manager John Schneider blocked their division rival’s plans. The Seahawks claimed Reed. It was a layaway deal. They knew Reed wouldn’t be able to play for at least a couple months.
They were taking a flier on a young, fast safety. If nothing else, Reed could perhaps help Seattle down the road, at least on special teams.
Reed was cleared to the active roster Oct. 31. He debuted the next day for Seattle as the nickel back— in a win against the 49ers.
Since then, Reed has been a brash, aggressive star in a Seahawks pass defense that, before he started playing in it, had given up the most yards in NFL history through the season’s first two months.
How much does what the Niners told Reed motivate him?
Reed flexed his right arm and pantomimed putting a weight onto his back.
“Man, chip on my shoulder. Forever. For real,” he said after his latest, wowing performance last weekend in Seattle’s win at Washington. “It’s heavy.
“I came into this game pretty angry, pissed off. Just because, you know what I’m sayin’?
“I knew they were going [to] try me; I was guarding 17 [Washington receiver Terry McLaurin], so a lot of people, I felt like, had nervous energy. I came in the game with that chip on my shoulder, and I just let it out. Talkin’, all that.
“I was having fun out there.”
And not just at Washington. His last seven weeks have been a blast.
“He’s a really, really explosively quick athlete,” Carroll said, “with really good instincts.
“It adds up to, he is all over everybody he’s playing now.
“He’s just an all-around football player. He just happens to be, you know, 183 pounds.”
Carroll shrugged.
Reed is breaking the coach’s Richard Sherman-Brandon Browner-Quinton Dunbar-Tre Flowers prototype for a Seahawks cornerback. He’s not tall. He’s not rugged with the seemingly required 32-inch arms (Reed’s are 31 5/8 inches, as measured at the 2018 NFL combine).
“No problem with me,” he said. “I love the way he plays.”
The former defensive back, defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator said Reed had “a beatiful game” at Washington.
He broke up three passes. And Carroll particular loved Reed’s interception in the third quarter of Dwayne Haskins.
“That’s a heck of a play,” Carroll said. “He saved us a little bit there.”
He’s been saving them for more than a month.
After Dunbar’s chronically pained knee gave out during the Seahawks’ loss at Buffalo last month, Reed replaced Dunbar as the starting left cornerback. That was for the following week’s game at the Rams.
Reed has wowed Carroll and the Seahawks for how decisive he is. He runs, fast, in straight lines with conviction. He’s single-handedly added life to Seattle’s punt returns, running straight into and sometimes through punt-coverage defenders, four and five of them, doesn’t matter, whether he gets blocking or not.
This week he’ll make his sixth NFL start the last two years, all since Nov. 8. It will be at cornerback against the Rams again. A Seahawks win Sunday means they—and the guy whom the 49ers said wouldn’t play this year—win the NFC West.
“Being 5 [feet] 9, it’s a statement for me. Because corners that are 5-9 are not corners anymore,” Reed said. “They play the slot [as a corner].
“So every time I play outside I feel like I’ve got to make a statement.”
