Remembering Ed Reed's Legendary NFL Career

Gary DavenportMay 6, 2015

Not since the end of the 2012 season has safety Ed Reed donned the purple and black of the Baltimore Ravens, prowling the back end of the defense.

Still, after splitting 2013 between the Houston Texans and New York Jets and sitting out the 2014 season, it's Baltimore where Reed will call it a career after 12 seasons in the league.

As Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun reports, Reed will retire officially at a press conference in Baltimore on Thursday, and as the curtain closes, let's take a look back at an NFL career that will all but certainly end with induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

2002: Entering the NFL

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MATT HOUSTON/Associated Press

Ed Reed was a standout safety for the University of Miami, a key member of the turn-of-the-century Hurricanes team that was considered among the best single-season college football teams in history.

Reed's collegiate career ended with a national championship win over Nebraska in the 2002 Rose Bowl, and the 2001 Big East Defensive Player of the Year left Coral Gables as the Hurricanes' career leader in interceptions, interception yardage and pick-sixes.

Reed was easily the top free safety available in the 2002 NFL draft, and the Baltimore Ravens made Reed the 24th overall pick that season.

Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome told Gary Mihoces of USA Today back in 2010 that Reed's playmaking ability stood out on tape:

"
With Ed, you had to watch a lot of tape because he played on a team that probably had eight or nine guys that came on to play in the National Football League.
But anytime a play needed to be made to make a difference in the ball game, Ed Reed made that play. ... In a critical point, whether it was a third-down play or fourth-down play, some play that Miami needed to seal the ballgame, Ed Reed made that play.
"

It didn't take too long for that pick to start paying dividends. Reed tallied 85 total tackles in 16 starts as a rookie, adding the first five interceptions of his professional career.

2004: Defensive Player of the Year

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AL BEHRMAN/Associated Press

By the time the 2004 NFL season got underway, Ed Reed had already logged 12 career interceptions and been named to his first Pro Bowl (in 2003).

However, in 2004, Reed showed it wasn't just a matter of his ability to rack up interceptions—it was what he could do with those picks afterward.

A November game against the Cleveland Browns personified Reed's third NFL season. With the clock running down and the Browns driving for a potential game-tying score, Reed picked off a Jeff Garcia pass in the Ravens' end zone.

And he returned it 106 yards for the game-sealing score.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, head coach Brian Billick said he was pleased with the performance while speaking with The Associated Press (via ESPN).

"He seems to always be around it when you need it," Billick said. "He kind of waited to the end to do it. Might have saved my heart a little bit if he'd of done it earlier."

At the time, that return was an NFL record. So were his 358 return yards on nine interceptions that year. Throw in 76 tackles, and Reed's performance that season propelled him to the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award.

The cherry on top of possibly Reed's best single-season performance? In that year's Pro Bowl, Reed became the first player in the game's history to block a punt and return it for a score.

Show-off.

2006: Back to the Pro Bowl

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CHRIS GARDNER/Associated Press

In 2005, for the first time in his NFL career, things weren't all sunshine and puppies for Ed Reed. Reed missed six games with an injured ankle, and the Ravens went a disappointing 6-10.

Still, that didn't stop the Ravens from re-upping Reed with a six-year, $40 million contract extension in June of 2006. Newsome told Len Pasquarelli of ESPN at the time the deal was a no-brainer:

"
It's one less thing for him to worry about. He knows he is going to be here for the long-term now, and it (sic) part of the plans in the big picture, and he can devote his energies now to football matters and to being the playmaker he has always been for us.
"

That season Reed was healthy and right back at it: 59 tackles, five interceptions, the third pick-six of Reed's NFL career and a third trip to Honolulu.

Gotta earn that cheddar.

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2007-08: Interceptron

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Jeffrey M. Boan/Associated Press

You would think that by the beginning of the 2007 season, opposing teams would have learned throwing in Ed Reed's direction was asking for trouble.

However, they didn't seem to get the memo.

By then, Reed's production was expected. He managed only 39 tackles in 2007, but his seven interceptions that year were enough to propel him to another trip to Honolulu.

However, for the second time in three years, the Ravens lost double-digit games, and that resulted in head coach Brian Billick being shown the door.

It didn't take long for new head man John Harbaugh to realize what he had in his superstar safety. And as Matt Vensel of The Baltimore Sun reported, with Reed's antics becoming routine, he had to find a new way to impress fans.

Like, say, breaking his own record for the longest interception return for a touchdown in NFL history:

"
In a win over the Philadelphia Eagles in 2008, Reed ran into the record books when he picked off Eagles quarterback Kevin Kolb in the back of the end zone on 2nd-and-Goal from the 1-yard line. Ed take a knee? Never. Reed ran it all the way back. On his way to a 108-yard interception return for a touchdown, he pushed Kolb out of the way, slipped by Brian Westbrook and juked Brent Celek to the ground.
"

But wait, there's more!

"
In a Monday night game in between the Ravens and their neighbors to the south, the Washington Redskins, Reed was all over the field. His most impressive play came when he ripped the ball out of the hands of Clinton Portis after a run, scooped it up and ran it 22 yards for a touchdown. Reed backpedaled into the end zone after spinning around the final Redskin in his path.
"

Reed scored three touchdowns during that 2008 campaign, intercepting nine passes for the second time in his career.

And back to Honolulu he went.

2009-2010: Injuries and Interceptions

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Nick Wass/Associated Press

In 2009, the injury bug bit again. An injured groin cost the then-31-year-old four games, and Reed's 50 tackles and three interceptions that year made for a pedestrian season (at least by Reed's standards).

The next season, Reed missed even more time—six games with a hip injury that required surgery in the offseason. In fact, as Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk reported, Reed told SiriusXM Radio he considered retirement prior to the 2010 season:

"
It's still a long slow process, you know, and I try to do some strengthening stuff to strengthen it right now and I know it's just weak but I mean, yeah, I had to have reconstructive surgery. They had to go in and reconstruct my whole hip. They took about [six or seven] inches from my IT band, replaced my labrum that I tore. They went in in two spots, so I mean it's a slow process. Plus I have other injuries that, you know, really probably had an effect on causing this that I have to pay attention to also. So I'm just taking my time.
I want to come back. I want to be ready for the first game but I don't know how soon that would happen, how soon I would be back. You know, we're gonna continue to do the things to try and get back and at least play this year for the fans, man, cause they've been hounding me, man. They've been asking me, "Are you gonna play? Are you coming back? I would love to see you play at least one more year." So hopefully we got at least one more in us.
"

It was Week 7 before Reed hit the field, but once he did, he certainly didn't appear washed up.

Quite the opposite, in fact. In Reed's first game action of 2010, he picked off a pair of passes and forced a fumble in a win over the Buffalo Bills.

Reed would go on to lead the NFL with eight interceptions that season, earning his seventh trip to the Pro Bowl in the process.

Unfortunately, that hip injury also marked the beginning of the end.

2012: The Promised Land at Last

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Julio Cortez/Associated Press

Reed would earn his eighth (and final) All-Pro nod in 2011, but it was in 2012 that Reed finally accomplished the one goal that had eluded him throughout his career.

Reed helped set the tone for that magical Ravens season with the final pick-six of his NFL career in a Week 1 blowout of the Cincinnati Bengals. However, it was the last interception Reed logged with the Ravens that may have been the biggest.

In the lead-up to Super Bowl XLVII against the San Francisco 49ers, not a lot of ink was dedicated to Reed playing in his first Super Bowl. By this late stage in his career, the balky hip had sapped Reed's speed. He was more cagey veteran than defensive superstar.

Still, then-Baltimore linebacker Dannell Ellerbe cautioned Kevin Van Valkenburg of ESPN not to count the old man out:

"
It's been such a blessing to play with that dude. He's just so much of a leader that's behind the scenes, man. He don't need the cameras or anything. He's a guy that you respect, because he really don't care about being in the limelight. He just wants to make sure all his players are doing good. He cares only about this team. That's just a guy you want to play for.
"

Ellerbe knew what he was talking about. Reed notched five tackles (including a huge fourth-quarter, open-field stop of Frank Gore) and (duh) intercepted Colin Kaepernick in the Ravens' 34-31 win.

The old man had climbed the mountain.

But the summit proved bittersweet.

2013: Exile

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Tim Umphrey/Associated Press

As John Breech of CBS Sports reported in 2013, the confetti had barely settled in the Superdome before Reed was on his way out of Baltimore:

"
Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson sent Reed a congratulatory text after the Ravens 34-31 win over San Francisco and well, let's let Reed tell the rest of the story.
"Andre just said congratulations," Reed said, via CSNHouston.com. "He said congratulations and it was more my comment to him."
What exactly was Reed's comment to Johnson?
"Get me to Houston," Reed said he responded.
"

Sure enough, in March of 2013, Reed inked a three-year, $15 million free-agent deal with Houston.

His time there was doomed from the start.

A month after joining the team, Reed once again required surgery on his hip. He missed the first two games of the season and was a shell of even his 2012 self once he did hit the field.

By November, Reed was pulled from the starting lineup then released altogether.

Reed was picked up by former Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, who was the then-coach of the New York Jets. Once he was in the Big Apple, the always-outspoken Reed didn't hesitate to say exactly what he thought of defensive coordinator Wade Phillips and the Houston defense, per Jim Corbett of USA Today:

"
That defense is not a good fit for a lot of people who are still down there. It wasn't just about me. And my comments were not just about me. Obviously, that's why I'm not there anymore because people felt some kind of way about what I said.
The truth is the truth. And that's the reason why what happened last week happened. They know I know.
"

Reed played out the string for Gang Green, but all in all his last season on the field was an inglorious end to a glorious career.