Ed Reed is back to moving around at full speed.
He demonstrated that at the Ravens' walkthrough Wednesday morning, racing around so much on the practice field behind the team's training facility in Owings Mills that outside linebacker Terrell Suggs teased the six-time Pro Bowl free safety that he was trying to get his hands on another interception.
Still, seeing No. 20 in practice was a welcome sight for many of his teammates.
"You go around the league and you hear about all the different teams missing a lot of players here and there and the importance of them, but to get a guy like Ed back, for us right now, that's probably one of the biggest things we could have," inside linebacker Ray Lewis said. "Not just him. [Linebacker] Brendon Ayanbadejo comes back. So as a complete team, we're getting totally healthy, and that's a very exciting thing. But having Ed back, that's a huge, huge bonus."
"The defense will be stronger," said Tom Zbikowski, who will likely be replaced by Reed in the starting lineup. "We'll have his leadership out there and hopefully take some momentum into the bye week."
When Reed went out to practice Wednesday afternoon, he was greeted by fullback Le'Ron McClain, who shouted "Reed!" several times. He went through 10 minutes of stretches and kicks before joining safeties Dawan Landry, Haruki Nakamura and Ken Hamlin for positional drills. All the safeties clapped and then slapped hands before commencing drills.
Prior to his first practice of the 2010 season, Reed told a large contingent of reporters that he has progressed from his offseason hip surgery to the point where he feels well enough to prepare for this Sunday's opponent, the Buffalo Bills.
"I've been working out tremendously hard to come back from this surgery," Reed said. "Like I said, I'm feeling good, but I've still got some things in there. We're going to play ball when we're out there."
Reed said he still feels some soreness in the hip that forced him to sit out training camp and begin the regular season on the the team's physically-unable-to-perform (PUP) list. He also said that he's still battling the nerve impingement in his neck and shoulder area that has limited his ability to tackle in recent years.
"I think time off definitely helped it, but getting back into the game, it's going to come right back," Reed said of the impingement. "It never left. I still have the impingement. But I worked out hard to try to strengthen it. At some time, I'll have to take care of it, but hopefully, God willing, I won't have anything major. But like I said, it's football. Things happen. It's a violent sport, a physical sport, and people get hurt."
The team has 21 days to activate Reed from the PUP list and place him on the 53-man active roster. Until then, the organization is not required to make any roster moves.
Reed did not let his time on the sideline go to waste. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Reed appears as sleek and as well-conditioned as a 32-year-old, nine-year veteran can look. And he continued to join his teammates in meeting rooms, during film study and for practices.
Landry said a running joke among the defensive backs was that they got more of an earful from Reed during games than they got from secondary coach Chuck Pagano.
"I think he wanted to be on the field," Landry said. "It kind of itched him that he couldn't be out there. You could always see him on the sideline yelling, 'Look for this! Look for that!' But he wanted to be out there. He wanted to make the plays."
Coaching, Reed learned, is not in his blood — yet.
"I definitely learned a lot being around the coaches, trying to help the guys on the sidelines, and that definitely helped me," he said. "But I wasn't trying to get too comfortable with it because I'm not looking to coach that long like that. But it was definitely fun and different. There were times when I wanted to be out there, but like I said, obviously, I couldn't."
Reed's availability for Sunday is still unclear. Coach John Harbaugh said the team will be cautious with Reed.
"I think we'll be prudent certainly, but there's definitely a possibility that he could play," Harbaugh said. "He was out here in the walkthrough, so that's the first we've seen of him out there on the field. So that was really great. We all had a smile on our face, and he was excited to be out there. But it's going to be based on how the specific issue responds to specifically practicing football at a fast pace. So we'll just have to see how that shakes out."
The Ravens have a bye after Sunday's game, and Reed conceded that there is some consideration to missing the contest against the Bills to take advantage of a couple more weeks of rest and recovery.
"We definitely talked about that, and that's one thing I knew Coach Harbaugh was looking into, and the organization," Reed said. "That's why I went on PUP. From a surgical standpoint, it was an important six-month period of getting back to full strength, a year-long process of getting back to full strength. We've still got time for recovery, and I still have some soreness in there and everything. So I'm pretty sure that's the thought up there."
Reed is the franchise's all-time leader in interceptions (46) and has scored 13 touchdowns in the regular season and playoffs. Reed, however, declined to assess his impact on a Ravens defense that ranks second in the NFL in points per game and third in both total yards per game and passing yards per game.
"Just play my part," he said. "Do what I'm supposed to do and then hopefully, I can continue to do the things that I did in the past."
Baltimore Sun reporters Ken Murray and Jamison Hensley contributed to this article.
- Text FOOTBALL to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Ravens text alerts
Buy Ravens Gear
Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by The Baltimore Sun. The Sun Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.