Bill Belichick gushes over Ed Reed: ‘Only player I’ve ever done that against in my entire career’

Bill Belichick joined the ManningCast and gushed over Ed Reed

Nobody, and I mean nobody, loves Ed Reed more than Bill Belichick. Not Ozzie Newsome, who drafted him. Not Brian Billick, who first coached him. Not John Harbaugh, who celebrated a Super Bowl victory with him. Not Ravens fans. Nobody.

Back in 2009, Belichick had already decided Reed, seven years into his NFL career, was the best free safety he’d ever witnessed. In Week 4 of 2009, he let Reed know it.

“You stay out of our air today,” Belichick said. “You’re the best free safety that’s ever played this game that I’ve seen. You’re awesome. That play you made on that out pattern last week. Middle of the field making a play on an out cut? Give me a break, you look like you’re at the Pro Bowl.”

One of the most well-known clips of Belichick praising Reed was his breakdown of Reed’s interception against Peyton Manning.

“One of the greatest plays I ever saw [Reed] make was against [Peyton] Manning where he lined up on the weak side of the formation and on the snap of the ball he turned and ran to the middle of the field like he was going to play in the middle of the field,” Belichick said. “And, of course, Manning read that and came back and threw the go back to the X[-receiver] and Reed knew that when he went to the middle of the field that Peyton would come back to the X. So, he ran to the middle of the field but without even looking at the quarterback he just turned and wheeled before he got to the hashmark and just knew that that was going to be the play and ran over to the sideline and intercepted it.”

On Monday as he joined ESPN’s ManningCast, Belichick was asked about Reed and instantly, a jubilated Belichick gushed over Reed.

“What made him so special in your eyes,” Peyton asked.

“Oh my god, everything,” Belichick said. Where do you start? Run force. Tackling. Man-to-man coverage. Blitzing. Disguise. He was great—great in the deep part of the field. Great speed, great range, and when he got his hands on the ball he could score from anywhere — 105 [yards], 108 [yards], whatever it was yard returns on the interceptions. And then, his punt blocking. When we played against him we had a different punt protection whenever he was in the game to make sure we doubled the guy and found somebody else not to block. We’d put two guys on Ed Reed. Now luckily, he wasn’t in there on every punt rush, and there were times we played against him when he didn’t rush the punt the entire season, but if he came into our game, we were doubling him. He had his own punt protection. Only player I’ve ever done that against in my entire career. So, it was everything with Ed Reed. I told Tom [Brady], never release the ball without knowing where he is on the field. Not that I had to tell him that, he knew that. But, you have to know where Ed Reed is when you’re releasing the ball. Cause he would start two yards from the line of scrimmage and ended up being 35 yards deep. Or he’d be 20 yards deep and blitz and get there and still be there. I have so much respect for him as a player. He was so hard to play against.”