Run Defense
As with his pass defense, Reid’s athleticism offers a glimpse at what he can do at his best in the running game. Where this is most evident is in his ability to pursue to the ball. While the next couple of plays are on short passes, this is equally applicable on outside runs:
For a safety who didn’t spend much time playing in the box, the ability to affect the run game will largely depend on his ability to bring down ball carrier in open space, but when he was asked to play near the line of scrimmage, as he will likely have to at times in the NFL, his gap discipline was and will be crucial. As with much of his pass defense, Reid was frustratingly inconsistent in this regard; on this next play, he shows the discipline to maintain the outside gap and so forces the running back inside, even if the help overpursued in this case:
However, on both of the following plays, he tries to dive under the block, allowing the running back to get the edge, despite having help inside:
These are things that will drive NFL coaches mad, as this is simply a failure to play within the structure of the defense. On both plays, Reid knows he has help inside, and needs to be content to simply force the play back inside rather than trying to make the tackle.
As a pure tackler, Reid is generally decent, getting low to wrap up ball carriers, such as on the following plays:
There are some times when he does try and go too high, often leaving himself off-balance and making himself vulnerable to late movement by the ball carrier; this is not terrible, and the following plays are certainly not emblematic of his general tackling technique, but it is something worth noting:
In his favor, Reid does show an understanding of balance and how to bring down ball carriers effectively rather than simply hitting them as hard as possible. On the following play for example, he is able to use the running backs forward lean to effectively push him to the ground from above:
Where he did show some slight issues was when asked to pursue to the perimeter, as he often seemed overly wary of overrunning the play and so had a tendency to underpursue. This was particularly frustrating when he had inside help, such as on the following play, where he should have prioritized sealing the edge, knowing that a cutback by the ball carrier would have been into the path of the inside help, and while he is able to make a good tackle regardless, this does create an unnecessary risk of a longer gain:
When he doesn’t have inside help, this underpursuit is more understandable, and plays like the following are designed to create missed tackles due to the pursuit angle difficulty the defender is placed in. What is again frustrating with Reid here is his inconsistency; on this first play, he gets close to the receiver before using his hands well to get inside purchase on the receiver and bring him down without losing his balance:
However, on this almost identical play, he simply reaches wildly for the receiver and is easily brushed aside:
What is so frustrating, and possibly concerning, here is that he shows the ability to do better, and it is hard to pass the error off as anything less than a mental lapse.
While he wasn’t asked to take on blockers head-on in the box, he did at least show a decent ability to fight through contact in order to make a play on the ball carrier, something that does bode well for his ability to play in the box at times in the NFL, even if this is far from conclusive evidence:
As a run defender, Reid flashes potential and is generally effective, but the inconsistencies are hard to ignore at times. He is never going to be a big box thumper in the mold of a Kam Chancellor, but he pursues well to the ball, shows generally good tackling technique and, at times, an understanding of gap discipline help, that will allow him to be an effective piece of a defensive scheme in the running game; he probably won’t be blowing up running backs in the backfield any time soon, but he can offer edge contain from the slot of last-man cover on the back end.
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