Ed Reed’s contract extension makes him the highest paid safety in the history of the NFL – and deservedly so.  The successful conclusion of these negotiations removes an unnecessary distraction for Reed and the club.  In the NFL, players must be not only physically at their peak in order to effectively compete, they must also be mentally at their peak.  That is particularly important in today’s NFL with the variety of offensive sets, sub packages and modern rules intended to give an offense the advantage. 

With Reed’s new contract done, the secondary’s quarterback can be more focused on film, preparation and communicating with his secondary mates.  According to our analyst Bruce Laird, that is clearly something that Reed needs to improve upon.

“Ed Reed has got to help his corners more.  He has to communicate better.  The safeties are facilitators.  They are back 7 to 10 yards further than everyone else and they can see things better than when you are on the line of scrimmage or even at linebacker.  These are also the guys that are telling your corners what is going on and where the split of the wide receiver is.”

Laird continued, “I once said to Gary Baxter, ‘It must be nice playing with Ed Reed.’  And he said, ‘You know [Reed] didn’t talk to me that much.  He didn’t tell me that many things.’  And that’s a shame because Ed sees it and he’s got great reactions and obviously he’s looking at things and he has to communicate to his teammates.”

Knowing that he will be in Baltimore for another 7 years and that he will be looked upon to be a leader for the balance of his career (Reed will be 28 on 9/11), a financially set for life Ed Reed may set new standards for his position and enable the Ravens secondary to reach its lofty potential.  He may now more willingly accept the role of mentor to the Ravens young safeties like Gerome Sapp and rookie Dawan Landry, particularly important during training camp.  Perhaps he’ll now be less hesitant to make a tough tackle knowing that the financial risk of an injury has been removed.  And now that his contract is secured, maybe he’ll curtail some unnecessary gambling as part of an effort to show up on film as a big playmaker for prospective suitors around the NFL.

He’s happy, the timing was right, let’s play ball for the Baltimore Ravens Ed Reed because you will be a Raven for a long, long time.

One current Raven who might not be around for a long, long time is Adalius Thomas.  Thomas in this writer’s opinion was unjustly snubbed by the Pro Bowl selection process in 2005.  Couple this with Thomas' unrestricted free agent status after the 2006 season and the 7 year vet will have a ton to play for.  You might recall that the market didn’t exactly produce attractive opportunities for AD the last time he was a UFA and while his versatility may have worked against him then and even in the Pro Bowl voting, don’t count on it happening again once Thomas’ contract is up.

We’ve compared Thomas favorably in the past to the soon to be 28-year-old Julian Peterson who landed a seven year deal that will pay him $55 million over the life of his new contract and more importantly $18.5 million in bonuses.  As the stats below indicate (Thomas' in purple), AD has been every bit as productive as Peterson over the past few years.  Can the Ravens afford to keep AD?

Can they afford not to?

Re-signing AD will be a very difficult undertaking for the Ravens.  When the 2007 season starts, AD will be 30 years old.  After Peter Boulware turned 30, he had 5 tackles and 2 ½ sacks for the remainder of his career!  Granted their styles are different but with injuries and age in the NFL, productivity can decline sharply.

Certainly there’s the franchise tag that is available to the Ravens and that price for AD’s position is currently $7.169 million.  That could eventually be the play that Ozzie Newsome makes particularly if the Ravens are viewed to be Super Bowl ready in 2007.  But if not, the Ravens may be forced to let AD explore the market again, particularly if Dan Cody progresses well.

Regardless of what happens, AD’s incentives to produce bode well for a club that needs it. 

One thing the club doesn’t need is a divided locker room again in 2006.  The Ravens have been very careful to bring in veteran free agents, rookie free agents and draft picks that are high character players and that should help to produce a more harmonious atmosphere at One Winning Drive.

However, there has been a report that the coaching staff is a bit divisive these days, stemming from the defensive coaches taking exception to an alleged lack of commitment by the offensive coaching staff.  During GAMETIME this past Sunday, I asked the Ravens defensive line coach Clarence Brooks about this development that was first reported by The Sun’s Mike Preston.

Brooks was adamant that this was not the case and dismissed it as wild speculation since “[he’s] yet to see Mike Preston in any of the staff meetings.”

Despite Brooks’ contention, it’s certainly within reason to conclude that tension could exist between the offensive and defensive staffs given the fact that the defense has generally carried the Ravens throughout Brian Billick’s tenure with the club.  However, given my conversation with Coach Brooks, I tend to think that the tension is good – it is the byproduct of healthy competition and no one would contest that it’s time for the offense to step up.  And judging from the OTA’s, the hardest working unit on the field has been the offensive line and the most boisterous coach not named Frank Gansz, Jr. is offensive line coach Chris Foerster.

While we’re on the topic of defensive and offensive lines, it is important that the Ravens get their top two picks into camp on time.  Haloti Ngata missed 6 days of OTA’s because his class didn’t graduate until June 16.  He’ll be counted on to replace Maake Kemoeatu.  Chris Chester lacks experience as an offensive lineman and cannot afford to miss the learning experience of training camp.

Naturally Ngata will be the more difficult of the two to sign.  Despite the fact that a slotting system exists in the NFL when it comes to signing draft picks, player agents are constantly looking for clever ways to spice up their clients’ contract if for no other reason than to justify the agent’s existence.

In case you are wondering what the No. 12 pick in the draft is worth (Ngata), let me share with you a few interesting contract stats about that slotted position when looking back over the past three years.

Now that that is settled, there’s no reason for you to be late now Haloti, is there?