While no one’s sure when Texans safety Ed Reed is going to show up for practice, his teammates are now convinced he’ll be ready when it’s time for games to start.
Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson said he talked to Reed recently, and was confident the veteran safety would be sufficiently recovered from hip surgery to play in the Sept. 9 opener. He hasn’t taken part in any of the Texans offseason work since signing.
“He’s out running around and stuff,” Johnson said, via Dave Zangaro of CSNHouston.com. “He said he feels like he’s ahead of schedule. You never know until you get out there and get banged up a little bit. Other than that, he said he’s feeling fine and he’ll be ready to go opening day.”
How mobile the 34-year-old Reed will be after the surgery remains to be seen, but the Texans are hopeful he’ll add something to an already good defense.
“Ed’s a playmaker,” defensive end J.J. Watt said. “He’s a guy who flies around and he always seems to find the ball and that’s so much fun to play with because you know he’s back there and you know he’s a wild card and you know he can make plays that you wouldn’t really expect him to make, so it’s going to be a lot of fun to have him on this defense.”
Now all they have to do is wait for that day to actually come.