When it was announced last week that free agent safety Eric Reid would be turning down a spot on the Washington practice squad following the season-ending injury to Landon Collins, a bunch of us were left scratching our heads. It almost made too much sense for Reid to join his former coach Ron Rivera in Washington and start his NFL career back up in a defensive system that he is familiar with, so why did he turn the opportunity down.
Well, he turned it down because the offer was to join the practice squad and work his way up to the active roster, when Reid felt he was already in shape to join the active roster. For Rivera, who explained the situation on Monday, his decision to hold the starting spot at a distance from Reid is due to the respect that he gained for both Kamren Curl and Jeremy Reaves in training camp, and something that he feels he owes to them.
Ron Rivera on his discussion with @E_Reid35 and why he offered him a spot on the practice squad, which Reid declined: pic.twitter.com/uNlxwbxNZ3
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) November 2, 2020
“I’m one of those guys that if you come to training camp, you work your butt off, you do everything that you’re supposed to do, you deserve that opportunity before anybody else,” Rivera said. “And that kind of what I was doing with Jeremy [Reaves]. I think he earned that right here and my respect, as far as going through camp, not complaining and doing things the right way. So I wanted to give him a chance to be part of the 53 and see where he is.”
Going forward, it will be on Curl and Reaves to shore up the safety position, with the belief that Deshazor Everett can continue to hold things down at free safety. No matter how badly you wanted Reid to come in and improve the secondary, you have to respect Rivera’s reasoning for why he’s choosing to go with the young guys.
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