Bills DB Coach Ed Reed was named to Pro Football Focus’ All-Decade Team. His presence is already being felt as he coaches the young talent on the Bills’ roster.
We all knew to be excited when we first heard of the Buffalo Bills’ signing Ed Reed to be our new defensive backs coach. He is a new face to the Bills’ organization, but has a good history with Rex Ryan, who praised the future hall-of-famer when the signing was announced:
"“Ed Reed is going to be such a great asset to our team. Obviously he’s played in this system and been an MVP caliber guy in this system. He’s going to be such a great asset for players. He’s a real student of the game as well and he’s going to be a phenomenal coach.”"
Ed Reed played under Rex Ryan with two different teams. Their first encounter on the same sidelines was with the Baltimore Ravens — who the Bills open the regular season against — when Rex was the team’s defensive coordinator. He then finished his career with the New York Jets, when Rex was the head coach of that team.
Although he is freshly retired from playing, the transition into his coaching career will be rather smooth. He was always known for being a very intelligent player, taking great pride in his ability to watch film and apply what he learned out on the field. Like Rex said, that’s a great asset — especially to a group of young defensive backs ready to learn and explode in this league.
Pro Football Focus recently put out an All-Decade team that mashed ten years of data (2006-2015) together to come up with the best performers by position over that span. Former Buffalo Bills’ running back Marshawn Lynch was honored at running back and hometown-turned-villain Rob Gronkowski was honored at tight end.
One more name stuck out from the rest: Ed Reed. He was named the top FS of the decade, with Troy Polamalu being honored at SS.
His career on the field was definitely worthy of the decision. Here’s what PFF had to say about him:
"“Reed was a player who seemed to keep his best for when it mattered most; of his 22 highest-graded games, five came in the postseason, including his best of 99.0 against the Texans in the 2011 divisional playoff. Although we got to see him playing the run very well early in his career, he became that deep-coverage specialist towards the end with his range, boosted by his uncanny anticipation off the throw.”"
Along with being named to 9 Pro Bowls and 5 First-Team All-Pro lists, he finished his career sharing the record for most career playoff interceptions (9), most career interception return yards (1,590 yards) and the longest interception return for a touchdown (108 yards).
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Ed Reed has a lot of talent at his fingertips and with one of the greatest safeties to ever step foot on the field, they are all poised to shine this season.
I bet Tyrod Taylor is happy to have Reed on his side because he’s one of the few quarterbacks that won’t have to go against his knowledge.
Who’s your favorite Buffalo Bills’ safety of all-time? I’d have to go Mark Kelso, but I also really liked Jairus Byrd when he was with the team. Leave your comments below!
(Bills DB Coach Ed Reed)(Bills DB Coach Ed Reed)(Bills DB Coach Ed Reed)(Bills DB Coach Ed Reed)(Bills DB Coach Ed Reed)