BY NICK ST. DENIS
There's no doubt Ed Reed is a Hall-of-Famer. The question today, however, is how much Hall-of-Fame play he still has in him.
Last offseason, Reed was a roster casualty of a Baltimore Ravens team getting younger and cheaper after winning a Super Bowl, and he'll get a second shot at his former employer Sunday when the New York Jets travel a few hours south on I-95.
The quarterback of that Super Bowl team, Joe Flacco, expects to get the 35-year-old safety's best.
"I think when he’s healthy and he has a high motivation to go out there and play, I think he can do everything he’s always done," Flacco told the New York media Wednesday, via NewYorkJets.com. "He’s still got good ball skills and he just has that natural athleticism."
Reed was expected to be just a fraction of an extension of the Jets' secondary upon his arrival last week, but he ended up playing in 61 of the defense's 69 snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
The veteran centerfielder was serviceable in his Gang Green debut, seeing the second-most playing time of his uneventful season. Reed played in seven games for the Houston Texans through the first 10 weeks -- including a contest with the Ravens --- but clearly wasn't a good fit in Wade Phillips' defense.
With the Jets, Flacco thinks Reed can get back to being himself.
"He likes to gamble and take some shots," he said. "He still has the ability to do that just because of the stuff that he recognizes with his eyes and the willingness and the chances that he’s able to take, how willing he is to take those shots, where other guys aren’t necessarily willing to do it.
"He sees something and he trusts it, so I think he still has all those natural instincts, it’s just a matter of him being healthy and being in a good situation and I think he has that."
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