Chiefs roster: Jarran Reed an underrated, unfair offseason pickup

The Kansas City Chiefs roster is already one of the best in the NFL. Led, of course, by former league MVP and Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs are well-constructed from top to bottom and have a great chance of being the AFC Champions once again in the 2021 season because of it.

One of the natural byproducts of having an established young superstar at the quarterback position like Mahomes is getting free agents to come and play for your team at sometimes significantly reduced prices.

The Chiefs don’t get every free agent at a discount, nor are they able to re-sign their own guys for less than true market value a lot of the time, but sometimes they make moves that other teams just have to be shaking their collective heads at, wondering how in the world they’re going to deal with it when Kansas City is on the schedule.

One such move the Chiefs were able to make in the 2021 offseason was signing former second-round defensive tackle Jarran Reed to a one-year deal worth just $5.5 million.

Reed, who only recently turned 28 years old, has been outstanding at getting to the quarterback from the interior defensive line when fully healthy. In his last two 16-game seasons (2020, 2018), Reed has racked up a total of 17.0 sacks, 17 tackles for loss, 38 QB hits, and 53 pressures.

Chiefs roster: Rich get richer with Jarran Reed addition

Reed was suspended for six games in the 2019 season and his production significantly suffered as a result.

A former teammate in Seattle of Kansas City’s star defensive end Frank Clark, Reed already has some chemistry on the Chiefs roster, and working next to Chris Jones could help him be even more prosperous when it comes to sacking and hitting the quarterback.

When Clark and Reed were last on the Seattle Seahawks together in 2018, they combined for 23.5 sacks and 51 QB hits.

If their production is even somewhat comparable to that in 2021, add Chris Jones to the mix along with a blitz-heavy scheme from Steve Spagnuolo, and you have a potentially lethal combination at hand.

Offensive lines taking on the Kansas City Chiefs are going to need to be at full strength after this massively underrated addition to the Chiefs roster.