Former Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed met with the media in Baltimore Sunday during former teammate Lardarius Webb’s charity softball game at M&T Bank Stadium.
Here is what he had to say:
On whether it brought back memories to be back on the field at M&T Bank Stadium: “Yeah, man. Making my legs hurt (laughter). Nah, man. It does. Just walking in the locker room, talking with coach [Harbaugh], seeing the guys come in, it definitely brings back memories, man. Anytime I come into Baltimore, it brings back memories.”
On whether he is still preparing to play: “Yes. Definitely preparing to play. If I wasn’t, you would have heard something by now. But yeah, the offseason is going great. Spending time with my family. Not in any rush at all. Learned a lot about the process last year, and I know my worth, so I’m taking my time, getting myself all the way back to where I want to be, and it’ll come back down to it somewhere in season. I’ll probably end up somewhere — or not.”
On whether he could see sitting out training camp and joining a team later on: “I’m not going to anybody’s training camp. I sat and watched the league last year from a different perspective, and I learned a lot, and I saw they had teams that needed safeties in the latter part of the year. So right now, I’m just about taking care of me and getting myself back to [where] there is no question on my part. I know you guys [the media] may question it, but I’m not worried about that. It’s about how I feel.”
On what he learned in his first year away from Baltimore: “I learned so much as a coach, as a player, just being in a different organization and seeing how they run things coming from an organization where I was here for 11 years. And to go to two organizations in one year, my locker was around free agents when I was here for a reason. And to experience what those guys experienced, it was like nothing I could prepare for. To experience what they go through, it really taught me a lot. And from a coaching perspective, I really learned a lot as well, just how coaching styles are. Like I said, from being around coach Harbaugh, being around coach Billick, having so many defensive coordinators, I had a different perspective when I left, and I definitely learned a lot when I went to those two organizations.”
On whether he could see himself re-joining the Ravens organization at some point: “I think I can help pretty much any organization if I’m a position coach, a consultant, whatever. But I still have a lot to learn, and I’m willing to learn because it’s a different craft when you talk about coaching. And I always say I did more coaching when I was in New York because they have a bunch of young guys up there and those guys kind of gravitated to me, and we kind of had our own position meetings. So I could see me working in the organization here. I could see me working for Ozzie and those guys and Steve [Bisciotti] because I put so much into it and I know how they work, and they taught me so much.”
