Disruptive Undrafted DL Jared Ivey Working to ‘Earn Trust’ of Seahawks’ Coaches, Veterans

RENTON, Wash. - In the midst of Day 3 of the 2025 NFL Draft, pick after pick kept flashing on the screen. But Jared Ivey’s phone inexplicably remained silent.

Despite coming off a dominant final season at Ole Miss where he garnered Third-Team All-SEC distinction as a do-it-all defensive lineman for one of the top programs in the conference, teams kept passing in the fourth and fifth round on the chance to pick Ivey, who hadn’t expected to still be on the board at this stage of the draft. Once his phone finally did ring midway through the final day of the draft festivities, it unfortunately wasn’t to be informed that he had been selected.

But a familiar voice soon offered the positive pick me up Ivey desperately needed with things not going anywhere close to how he envisioned.

On the other end of the line, Seahawks outside linebacker coach Chris Partridge had reached out to his formal pupil, who he had tutored as a co-defensive coordinator at Ole Miss in 2022, Ivey’s first year on campus after transferring from Georgia Tech. If teams continued to skip on him, Patridge indicated Seattle had him on its radar as either a late round possibility or coveted undrafted free agent, viewing him as a strong fit for coach Mike Macdonald’s scheme.

“He reached out in the middle rounds,” Ivey recalled prior to an August 13 training camp practice. “And was just like, ‘I don't know what's going on, but you know, if the unthinkable happens, we got a spot for you here.’”

A few hours later, with that conversation setting the table for what had once seemed improbable given Ivey’s talent and production, the Seahawks had reached an agreement with him as a priority signing, reuniting the versatile defender with Patridge in the Pacific Northwest.

At the time, though he couldn’t have been more grateful for Patridge reaching out and Seattle backing up its genuine interest by aggressively courting him as the draft neared its conclusion, Ivey understandably was disappointed, battling through “mixed emotions” as his free fall continued through the sixth and seventh rounds. How could he not be after how well he performed against the best competition college football has to offer?

After finding his way to Oxford in 2022, under Partridge’s guidance, Ivey wasted little time becoming a key fixture of the Rebels’ front line. In his first year on campus, though his pass rushing production remained modest with 3.5 sacks, he tallied 37 tackles, five tackles for loss, and two fumble recoveries. One year later, he emerged as one of the most improved players in the entire SEC, more than doubling his tackle for loss total (12) and setting a new career-best with 5.5 sacks along with a fumble returned for a touchdown. He followed up with an even better senior year, producing seven sacks, three pass deflections, and two forced fumbles.

Such numbers in the vaunted SEC usually guarantee a selection in the upcoming NFL draft. But even after competing in the Reese’s Senior Bowl and having a solid week in Mobile, Ivey’s stock took a tumble in the spring thanks in large part to an underwhelming pro day workout where he ran the 40-yard dash in a slow 5.15 seconds and also tested poorly in agility and explosion drills, including a 4.68-second short shuttle that ranked in the 22nd percentile for his position.

As it turned out, Ivey’s lack of athleticism - at least in testing terms - clearly spooked away teams once the draft arrived in late April. But that worked to the Seahawks advantage, as they had a coach in Partridge on the staff who understood his strengths and how they would fit in a system well-equipped for hybrid defenders who had the size to play inside and enough juice and physicality to be a productive edge setter as well.

“It’s super exciting at the end of the day to have this opportunity and be invited to rookie minicamp to show what I can do,” Ivey said. “Throughout this entire process, just kind of learning and getting better and having a chance to play at this stage, it means everything to me, regardless of the outcome.”

In retrospect, as the saying goes, everything happens for a reason and Ivey’s slide that led to him plummeting into Seattle’s lap appears to have been a blessing in disguise for both sides.

Acclimating to the NFL hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park for Ivey, who got himself into Macdonald’s doghouse only a few practices into his first camp when he made too much contact with backup quarterback Drew Lock - who was sporting the non-content 90s throwback jersey - during a team drill and was sent to the showers early. He also drew the coach’s ire at the tail end of a padded practice when he brought running back Jacardia Wright to the ground with a full-fledged tackle and has mixed it up post-whistle with the likes of guard Anthony Bradford on more than one occasion.

But when Ivey hasn’t been taking Macdonald’s idea of “chasing edges” a step too far with his relentless motor, the rookie has excelled as a master of disruption, providing more than just an occasional flash on the practice field for the Seahawks.

Seeing snaps at nose tackle, outside linebacker, and everywhere in between, the 6-5, 274-pound Ivey has been quite the nuisance for Seattle’s offensive line groups, regularly blowing up plays in the backfield and creating pressure in the pocket as a rusher with underrated quickness off the snap and bricks for hands that he wields with the technical precision of a 10-year veteran. As he demonstrated in the most recent padded practice on August 12, he can win a variety of ways, as he whipped second-year guard Sataoa Laumea on consecutive 1-on-1 reps, first winning with a slick swim move to slip past the blocker and following up with a brutal bull rush steamrolling his opponent immediately into the assistant playing quarterback.

As he did throughout his three years at Ole Miss, Ivey has also been impressively effective as a run defender regardless of where the Seahawks ask him to line up. Totaling six combined tackles in his preseason NFL debut last week against the Raiders, he combined with defensive tackle Quinton Bohanna to stop running back Zamir White for no gain late in the first quarter and later stuffed back-to-back quarterback sneaks by Aidan O’Connell, only for officials to grant the offense a first down on the second one when the ball appeared to be short of the line to gain.

“My expectation is to just go out there and play free,” Ivey explained. “I know the scheme, I know what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish, just go out there and play as fast as I can and just make plays through the framework of the defense.”

With each successive practice, Ivey has kept showing up and balling out, stacking quality day on top of quality day while learning from the likes of established veterans Leonard Williams, Demarcus Lawrence, and Jarran Reed.

Leading to praise from defensive coordinator Aden Durde after Tuesday’s practice, Ivey and the rest of an intriguing crop of undrafted defensive linemen signed by the Seahawks back in late April have quickly built a strong rapport, evidenced by the elevated play of J.R. Singleton, Anthony Campbell, and Bubba Thomas over the past week and change as they have learned how to play off of their interior co-horts in Macdonald’s system. That continued on Wednesday with Ivey and Singleton executing an interior twist stunt to perfection, allowing both players to swarm Lock before a quick whistle was blown.

Looking towards his next preseason game with sights on winning a roster spot after being passed over by all 32 teams in April’s draft, Ivey isn’t concerned about his sack totals. Or how many tackles he finishes with. While his stat line may be what fires up fans and creates buzz about his candidacy as the next undrafted gem to land in Seattle, he doesn’t view numbers as the key to carving out a successful career.

Instead, exhibiting the savviness of a veteran in the same way he does throwing his hands at the top of his rush to discard blocks, nothing matters more in Ivey’s quest to prove the rest of the league wrong than earning the trust of Macdonald, Durde, and his teammates, which he hopes to take another step towards achieving against the Chiefs at Lumen Field on Friday night.

“I think everything can be enveloped in, you know, what I kind of strive for each day and that's just to become trusted by my teammates. I want my teammates to trust when I get in, there is no drop off and this guy knows what he's supposed to do. He's going to do what he's supposed to do and he'll be able to make plays for you.”