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Ed Reed Makes Official Debut Against Familiar Foe, Sunday

The former Cane great and future hall-of-famer will be taking the field against his former team, the Baltimore Ravens, this Sunday. This time he’ll be making an impact from the sidelines, as a defensive back assistant for the Buffalo Bills.

By Blain Bradley
NFL: Preseason-Buffalo Bills at Detroit Lions Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

His football journey started at Destrehan High School in Destrehan, La. He took at stop in Coral Gables, Fla. where he was part of one of the greatest defenses in college football history. He became an NFL legend in Baltimore, and took a brief trip to Houston and New York to see if he still had anything left in the tank.

Ed Reed, 37, now looks to make an impact in football, this time as an assistant defensive backs coach for the Buffalo Bills.

He is willing to make a comeback to the league, for the low price of $300 million.

The former All-Pro safety was hired by Rex Ryan to mentor the young d-backs in Buffalo. Ryan formed a bond with Reed during their time together with the Jets.

Ryan raved about Reed’s professionalism, and felt that Reed had the ability to be a great coach.

Reed will work with corners like Stephon Gilmore, who Andy Benoit of MMQB named the Bills most pivotal player.

The Bills defense didn’t live up to their hype last season, but they look to bounce back even stronger this year. Going into 2015, the Bills had the fourth best defense in the league. They slipped to 19th at the end of the season. Buffalo finished 26th in interceptions last season (9).

During his career, Reed snagged 64 interceptions. His 1,590 interception-return yards are an all-time record. Bills fans can bet that Reed will be in the secondary’s ear if they don’t capitalize on an easy INT.

Sunday’s 12 p.m. showdown against Baltimore will be a homecoming for Reed. Ravens OLB Terrell Suggs can’t believe that Reed is on the sidelines as a coach. Suggs spoke to the Baltimore Sun:

“It will be kind of weird,” Suggs said after Wednesday’s practice. “It’s going to be kind of weird to see Superman in street clothes. I guess he’s Clark Kent now. It’s going to be kind of weird, but we have a job to do, man. We have to get down to business. Before the game, it’s probably going to be, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ After the game, if it goes according to plan, there’s going to be a little love. But if not, it’s going to be a little weird, too. It’s going to be weird, but we’ll get over it real fast.”

To Suggs, former Ravens, Hurricanes fans and NFL fans, Reed may be Superman, but to the Bills d-backs he’s just coach.