Rex Ryan says Ed Reed signing had nothing to do with sentiment

The Houston Texans released Ed Reed earlier this week and it didn’t take long after he cleared waivers to find a new home. Ed Reed signed with the New York Jets today. There was some speculation that this could have been a move driven by sentiment. Jets head coach Rex Ryan was defensive coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens before agreeing to coach the Jets and worked with Reed.

“This had nothing to do with sentiment. We believe it will be a great signing for us and he’s going to help this football team,” Ryan said, via Dennis Waszak of the Associated Press.

Reed should be familiar with Ryan’s system having played in it before. Reed is also familiar with some of the staff like Ryan’s defensive coordinator (former Ravens assistant Dennis Thurman) and the team’s lead safety, Dawan Landry, another ex-Raven.

Ryan also said that Reed would play this weekend. Texans head coach Gary Kubiak said that the decision to release Reed wasn’t because of his comments.

“In all fairness to him, like I told him, in respect to his career and what he’s done, and for us to be in a situation where we’re playing him eight-to-10 plays and that was going to continue with the way we’re doing it right now,” Kubiak said. “I thought it was fair to him to give him an opportunity to play somewhere else, whatever he wanted to do.

“That’s how we came to the conclusion. He and I talked about it yesterday and we’ll continue with these young guys. They’ve been doing a good job.”