It’s the heart of the offseason, with the first Sunday of the 2025 NFL season still 26 weeks away, however, it’s been a day full of news from across the league. For the Seattle Seahawks, the big news Sunday has been the retention of a pair of defensive starters from the 2024 team in Jarran Reed and Ernest Jones.
Even though it’s only been a few hours since reports emerged that the Hawks have reached an agreement to keep Reed, Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 in Houston has already reported the terms of the contract agreed to by Reed and the Seahawks.
#Seahawks three-year, $22M extension for Jarran Reed: $4.5M signing bonus, $10M total gtd, salaries $2.99M (gtd), $5.49M ($2M gtd at signing for inj, skill, cap 5th day 2026 lg yr, $30K per game active roster bonus annual; $1M playtime, sacks incentive annual
— Aaron Wilson (@AaronWilson_NFL) March 9, 2025
Breaking that out into the pieces for the three years of the contract, it works out to the following cap hits:
2025: $5M ($2.99M base salary + $1.5M signing bonus proration + $510k per game roster bonus)
2026: $7.5M ($5.49M base salary + $1.5M signing bonus proration + $510k per game roster bonus)
2027: $9.5M ($7.49M base salary + $1.5M signing bonus proration + $510k per game roster bonus)
In addition, as Wilson noted in the tweet, Reed can earn an additional $1M per year through incentives based on playing time and sacks, which gives the contract the “up to” value of $25M, as indicated in initial reports.
In addition, $2M of the the $5.49M base salary in 2026 is injury guaranteed at signing, with that guarantee vesting into a full guarantee during the offseason next spring. According to Wilson’s post, the guarantee is set to vest on the fifth day of the league year, which would be the Sunday after the start of free agency next offseason. However, the Seahawks have traditionally used the fifth day of the league waiver period, which is the Friday after the Super Bowl, as the date on which guarantees vest, and it would be somewhat of a surprise to see them alter that structure at this point. Not that $2M on what is likely to be a $300M salary cap in 2026 is a massive deal, it’s just something to pay attention to in case the team has in fact opted to modify the traditional structure it has used in the past.