Seahawks 90-Man Rundown: Jared Ivey Ready to Show Football Skills Trump Athletic Concerns
With their offseason program all wrapped up, the Seattle Seahawks will open training camp at the VMAC on July 23, meaning the start of the upcoming season will be here before fans have a chance to blink.
In preparation for year number two under coach Mike Macdonald, I’ll be detailing every member of the Seahawks 90-man roster over the next several weeks, dishing out fun facts, exploring best and worst case scenarios, and predicting what to expect from each player entering the 2025 campaign.
A highly productive all-around defender at Ole Miss with All-SEC pedigree, will Jared Ivey make teams look foolish for passing on him in the draft by making a splash with the Seahawks as an undrafted signee?
Jared Ivey
Height/Weight: 6-6, 274 pounds
2024 Stats: 42 tackles, seven sacks, 11 tackles for loss
An All-State talent in both basketball and football, Ivey received Division I opportunities in each sport coming out of North Gwinnett High School, ultimately choosing to commit to Georgia Tech as a four-star defensive lineman. In two seasons with the Yellow Jackets, he started 13 out of 20 games played, contributing 40 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and a forced fumble. Seeking a fresh start, he transferred to Ole Miss after the 2021 season, participating in the Rebels’ spring practices and quickly earning himself a significant role in the defensive line rotation, racking up 37 tackles and 3.5 sacks in his first year with the program.
Continuing to improve in his final two years in Oxford, Ivey increased his sack totals to 5.5 and seven in 2023 and 2024 respectively, hitting double digit tackles for loss in each of those seasons as well. After terrorizing opposing quarterbacks with a career-high in sacks in his last year of eligibility, he garnered First-Team All-SEC recognition, but a poor performance at his pro day workout wound up leading to him going undrafted. Viewed as one of the top players available in the undrafted ranks, the Seahawks promptly signed him as a priority free agent and he will be granted the opportunity to compete for snaps at defensive tackle as well as defensive end in Macdonald’s scheme.
Fun Fact: According to Pro Football Focus, Ivey was one of five qualified defensive ends at the FBS level to earn at least an 80.0 run defense grade and 90.0 pass rush grade during the 2024 season.
Best Case Scenario: Carrying a massive chip on his shoulder after going undrafted despite being one of the most disruptive defenders in the SEC last season, Ivey sets his sights on showing every team that they made a huge mistake, ambushing quarterbacks and blowing up run plays throughout the preseason to lock up a rotational role as a hybrid defensive end/tackle for the Seahawks.
Worst Case Scenario: Proving the fears of prospective teams who skipped on him in April to be warranted, Ivey’s lack of quick twitch and explosiveness prevents his pass rushing production at Ole Miss from translating to the NFL, as he’s a non-factor in that regard during exhibition play and winds up being released without a practice squad role waiting for him.
What to Expect in 2025: NFL teams value athleticism for a reason and whether fair or not, Ivey paid dearly for a dreadful pro day workout where he ran a slow 5.15 40-yard dash and finished with a Relative Athletic Score hovering below 2.5. Going against the best of the best in the trenches, that lack of athletic juice will most likely show up in the pass rushing department, where he may be too limited in terms of explosiveness and quickness to generate many pressures on quarterbacks at the next level. If that ends up being the case, even considering the possibility fifth-round pick Rylie Mills won’t be ready for Week 1 coming off ACL surgery, it will be a major challenge for him to carve out a role on a talented Seattle defensive line as an early down one-trick pony.
However, it’s not a given that Ivey won’t be able to replicate some of the success he enjoyed at Ole Miss either. He played much faster and quicker in pads than he did in a pre-draft workout and much of his game has been predicated on strength and jarring, heavy hands, allowing him to bully blockers and deploy counters off bull rushes. Those traits can still easily play in the NFL both as a rusher and against the run and if he’s able to set the tone physically up front while lining up in multiple alignments as Macdonald expects, the stage has been set for him to not only make the Seahawks roster, but potentially make a significant impact early, especially with Mills likely to miss the start of the season.
