The Texans spent March heavily courting Reed, knowing their hard fall at the end of the 2012 season needed to be answered with toughness, resiliency and proven experience. The expected future Hall of Famer was supposed to be the antidote. While Reed’s skills had been in decline for several years, he was coming off a storybook Super Bowl run with Baltimore and initially appeared to be the perfect fit for a top-ranked defense that already featured defensive ends J.J. Watt and Antonio Smith and linebacker Brian Cushing.
But Ed Reed was never Ed Reed. Teammates spent the preseason and start of the regular season praising his past, not his present. A previously undisclosed hip injury — one Ravens coach John Harbaugh later said the team had known about for years — kept Reed out of uniform through Week 2 and turned him into 35-year-old coach Reed on the sideline. A birthday present in the form of a platinum walker captured the perils of relying on the past in the NFL.
While the Texans were 2-0 and surviving off last-second thrilling victories, Reed’s absence was tolerable. The Texans insisted they needed the five-time All Pro for the playoffs, not Week 4 against Seattle or Week 6 versus St. Louis. But then Reed’s new team began to fall apart. And instead of gliding in and lifting up an unpredictable defense that soon lost safety Danieal Manning and Cushing to season-ending injuries, Reed just fluttered around, consistently remaining in the far-away background during plays, while only recording 14 tackles through seven games (five starts) and none of his trademark interceptions.
Still, his teammates at least acted as if they were in awe and consistently spoke about Reed with reverence.
“This is Ed Reed. I’m going to take every advantage I can to learn from him and just pick his mind, and just really help each other,” said third-year safety Shiloh Keo, who replaced Reed in the starting lineup Nov. 3 during a 27-24 home loss to Indianapolis. “Because at the end of the day, we’re all here for each other and we’re the guys that can help each other in the locker room, outside of the football field. Just make sure everyone has a close bond and have that relationship where you can help everybody out.”
Four days after Keo’s comments, Reed became the biggest casualty to date of the Texans’ disastrous season. A team that spent a second consecutive preseason touting its Super Bowl potential is just 2-7, only one win better than NFL bottom-feeders Tampa Bay and Jacksonville.
Reed’s Week 3 return to Baltimore was the highlight of his season. His name was loudly chanted by fans pregame, then Reed reconnected postgame with O.J. Brigance, an inspirational figure and close friend, who’s battling Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“It was awesome,” Reed said. “When I first ran out, the whole stadium yelled my name. There was so much love and memories that I have here in this city – it’s like my family. It’s something you cherish as a player. Not everybody gets that welcome.”
Week 3 was also the beginning of the end for the Texans. Matt Schaub’s second consecutive week with a pick-six turned into a 30-9 blowout by a poor Ravens team.
By Week 10, Reed’s time with the Texans was done. He took the field for just 12 defensive plays during a 27-24 road defeat to Arizona, then criticized his team’s coaching and execution after the Texans’ franchise-record seventh consecutive defeat.
“Of course, man, (I wanted to play more). I’m just doing what I’m told for the most part,” said Reed, who has 61 career interceptions and was the 2004 defensive player of the year. “But at the same time, I know a lot of football. I know a lot about football, I know a lot about this game. I’m not just watching it like a blind man. The stuff I do know, I can’t say to you guys, because it is a team sport. … There’s a lot of soul-searching, top to bottom, that needs to be done, as coaches and as players.”
The Texans wasted more than $5 million on Reed. They devoted a crucial part of their offseason to acquiring him, barely made any other moves, then coldly sent him away soon after their 2013 campaign bottomed out.
The Texans entered last offseason believing they only required minor tweaks and a little more toughness. They still clearly lack the latter. Reed’s release Tuesday was the first of many major changes that await a franchise that has only fallen backward in 2013.
