Better for Reed to get coaching feet wet elsewhere

Former Ravens great Ed Reed may become a “phenomenal” coach as Rex Ryan predicted upon hiring him to join the Buffalo Bills staff as his assistant defensive backs coach on Wednesday.
But a Hall of Fame playing career doesn’t guarantee that he’ll be a successful coach as players in multiple sports have learned. That’s why it’s better for Reed to get his coaching feet wet elsewhere before potentially joining the Ravens staff down the line.
Even if many Ravens fans don’t like it.
Coincidentally, Reed is indirectly replacing Buffalo assistant Donnie Henderson, who was his first defensive backs coach in Baltimore and has been with eight different teams since then. It’s a reminder of the frequent turnover in the profession with many coaching changes coming in the form of termination.
It would be an awkward position for the Ravens to fire one of the best players in franchise history should he not have what it takes to be a coach. In Buffalo, fans won’t be sentimental about an assistant coach who had a Hall of Fame career in Baltimore if Ryan would need to let him go in a year or two.
Reed will be able to fly under the radar more with the Bills as he learns the craft.
How would Ravens fans react if Reed were their secondary coach and the group struggled mightily? Many fans couldn’t name Baltimore’s secondary coaches right now — Chris Hewitt and Matt Weiss — but everyone would know one of the best players in franchise history would hold the job.
The 37-year-old gaining valuable experience elsewhere first is a better plan for success.
There are also still some remnants of Reed’s playing career in Baltimore as coaches and remaining players remember the mercurial safety who wasn’t always the most coachable talent and even skipped mandatory minicamp in his final season with the Ravens. As unpredictable as he could be on the field, that same trait followed him off the field as well.
It may just be too soon.
This isn’t to suggest there’s a rift — many fans immediately concluded that Reed must be on poor terms with John Harbaugh if he’s going to work for Ryan instead — but the memories of Reed as a player are still fresh, which could have made for an awkward transition in the present. That said, Reed’s affinity for Ryan makes it unsurprising that the nine-time Pro Bowl selection would want to work with his former defensive coordinator, who was also the final head coach of his playing career with the New York Jets in 2013.
Every great player who transitions to coaching faces the challenge of relating to players who will lack the same talents and desire to be great. Reed has exceptional football intellect and has rightly been praised for mentoring younger teammates late in his career, but he was ultimately still the one in control on the field come Sunday.
The chances that Reed took — some wiser than others — because of his incredible range and ball skills will not be in play for the less-talented defensive backs he will coach. Ultimately, he’ll be the one accountable for getting them ready to play, but those players simply won’t be able to do things the same way that Reed did and he’ll need to recognize and embrace that reality to succeed.
If Reed proves capable and enjoys the extensive commitment needed to be an NFL coach — he only coached flag football for kids this past year — the Ravens should welcome the future Hall of Fame safety with open arms.
But it’s better for everyone that he begins his coaching career elsewhere.