Jordan Reed Ready for Third-Year Breakout Season in 2015

NFL fans are an impatient, restless lot. They generally expect instant impact, followed by consistence and brilliance. Little things like context, injuries and scheme barely register in their view of a player.

That's why Washington Redskins tight end Jordan Reed is already under pressure to deliver on his immense potential. Reed has only played two seasons, but many are already tired of asking: "When is he going to get it?"

The talent is obvious. Reed is the epitome of the modern tight end. You know the kind, the wide receiver trapped in a bigger body.

With his move skills, excellent hands, sharply run routes and explosion after the catch, Reed is the classic "roving-Y" Don Coryell and Kellen Winslow made famous with the San Diego Chargers in the early 1980s.

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At least that's the theory. The problem is Reed has very rarely put that theory into practice during his first two seasons in the pros.

It's not that his numbers have been poor; in fact, far from it. Take a look:

Season	Games	Starts	Receptions	Yards	Touchdowns
2014	11	2	50	465	0
2013	9	4	45	499	3

Those are solid figures, but a couple of things stand out as worrying pointers regarding Reed's so-far stunted development from raw rookie to inevitable star.

The first is the lack of touchdowns. It just doesn't hold weight for a player who screams matchup nightmare to have only scored three touchdowns since entering the NFL.

Reed is more than quick enough to run away from linebackers playing shallow zones. He's also too tall, strong and athletic for defensive backs trying to lock him up in press coverage.

Add those qualities to the ability to strike from anywhere on an offensive formation, and Reed should be a lethal weapon in the red zone. The very best tight ends typically are and, therefore, are usually the ones most often celebrating in an opponent's end zone.

The three best tight ends in football are Rob Gronkowski, Jimmy Graham and the ageing, but still wonderfully effective, Antonio Gates. The pair accounted for 34 touchdowns during the 2014 season, with Gates and Gronkowski hauling in 12 apiece, while Graham notched 10, according to NFL.com.

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It's that type of production Reed has to aim for. So what's holding him back?

Certainly, injuries have played their part. The impact of missing 12 games and making just six starts in two seasons cannot be ignored.

It's a worrying reality that Reed is so obviously brittle. It only took his first reception of the season, against the Houston Texans in Week 1, to prove that.

One catch, and Reed wasn't seen again until the Week 6 road game against the Arizona Cardinals.

Concussion issues derailed his rookie season, while hamstring problems interfered with Year Two. Reed simply has to find a way to stay on the field, otherwise he'll never refine his game.

But staying injury-free won't be the magic fix-all that suddenly turns Reed into a league sensation. For all of his obvious gifts, there are elements of Reed's game that naturally still need work.

For example, toward the end of last season, he simply wasn't winning one-on-one matchups in the red zone. In three games encompassing Weeks 14 to 16, Reed caught just eight passes for a mere 43 yards.

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That's meager production by tight end standards. But it's not just numbers like those that make it easy to worry about Reed. It's also how his overall numbers break down.

Taking a closer look at last season's stat line, Reed averaged just 9.3 yards per reception with a long catch of 30 yards, according to NFL.com. Those are poor numbers from a tight end initially expected to feature as a deep threat more often in head coach Jay Gruden's offense, per Real Redskins blogger Rich Tandler:

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Eifert and Gresham were targeted on passes of 20 yards or more a combined 13 times (Eifert 7, Gresham 6). Five of them were complete for 174 yards and a touchdown. Clearly, that’s some pretty good production out of 13 pass attempts. It would be surprising if Gruden did not utilize Reed on more deep patterns in 2014.

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Gruden himself appeared to confirm Tandler's theory when he described Reed in the following way, per USA Today Sports writer Jim Corbett: "a force in the passing game, who affords RG3 a mismatch against linebackers and safeties steaming down the seam and offers a wide catching radius as a dangerous red-zone threat."

The numbers show Reed was neither a deep threat, nor any sort of danger inside the 20 during Gruden's first year in charge. Those are the two things that must change in 2015.

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If not, Washington's passing game will miss a vital outlet. That absence will apply more pressure on whoever opens the season under center.

Speaking of pressure, it could be set to increase on Reed entering his third season. He could have the job all to himself if pending free agent Niles Paul walks away.

Paul usurped Reed last season, taking advantage of the younger man's injuries to record 39 catches for 507 yards. More importantly, Paul averaged 13 yards per catch, evidence that Gruden will stretch the seams when he has a tight end who's earned his confidence.

But Paul may have played his way into a deal better than any new Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan will be prepared to offer. B/R analyst Chris Simms believes Paul is more likely to get paid elsewhere:

In that scenario, Reed will be the go-to weapon of choice at tight end for Washington's offense. It's a role he's certainly capable of flourishing in.

More to the point, the presence of the NFL's best deep threat, DeSean Jackson, on the outside, gives Reed little excuse not to deliver. With Jackson guaranteed to regularly stretch coverage vertically, there's sure to be plenty of room for Reed to work underneath.

Not to mention that whenever coverage slants toward Jackson, which is often, Reed should be able to exploit single coverage in the opposite seam. This is how Gates has thrived for years in San Diego.

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Now it's up to Reed to put it all together. If there's a reason to be optimistic the third year will be Reed's best, it comes from his strong finish to 2014. He caught nine passes for 50 yards against the Dallas Cowboys in the season finale.

In many ways, it was a typical performance from Reed at his best. He moved around, attacking from the slot, out wide and even off the line. He also came out of the backfield to take screen passes, made good grabs and beat single coverage over the middle.

Those are the qualities Reed gives Washington's passing game. Now he has to stay healthy and learn consistency.

Every young player's development is a journey. Reed is close to a crossroads in his.

The talent is clearly there, but it's joined by enough question marks to keep you concerned this budding star may never break out. Reed has to provide an answer, a positive one, to the doubters in 2015.

All statistics via NFL.com.