Film room: What could D.J. Reed bring to Raiders?

Free agent cornerback with ties to Pete Carroll could be headed to Las Vegas this offseason

The franchise tag window has passed and the NFL’s legal tampering period begins next Monday, so free agency is officially heating up. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Raiders have over $96 million of cap space, per Over The Cap, and a need at cornerback. One free-agent corner to keep tabs on for the Raiders is D.J. Reed from the New York Jets.

Reed has ties to new head coach Pete Carroll, as the 28-year-old spent two seasons (2020 and 2021) with the Seattle Seahawks. He’s also been a consistent player throughout his career, earning coverage grades from Pro Football Focus in the 70s in each of the last five years.

While serving as the Jets’ No. 2 corner last season, Reed was targeted 60 times and gave up just 35 completions (58.3 percent) for 431 yards while tying for the 10th-most forced incompeltions (11) among cornerbacks, per PFF. Additionally, his 18 percent forced incompletion rate also ranked tied for 10th.

With that, let’s dive into a few clips that highlight what the seventh-year pro could bring to the Silver and Black.

One of the first things that stands out on Reed’s tape is a high football IQ. Here, he recognizes the screen immediately after the snap and crashes downhill to beat the slot receiver’s block. On top of that, he does a good job of wrapping up on the tackle and getting his arms around the receiver’s hips to bring the wideout down for a TFL.

While Reed is only 5-foot-9 and 188 pounds, he’s a solid tackler in coverage who recorded 13 defensive stops while only having four misses last season, per PFF.

Another way that Reed shows off his high football IQ is through route recognition.

In the clip above, he’s lined up in press coverage over the slot against Jordan Addison. When Addison stems to the inside on his release, Reed stays patient and keeps his hips square to the line of scrimmage, waiting for the wideout to break outside.

At that point, Reed opens his hips to turn and run, knowing what route is coming. Combined with his speed, that allows the corner to cut off and stay on top of the slot fade route, running the route for the wide receiver. Addison is forced to play defense on this route as Reed beats him to the spot and nearly comes up with the pick.

This time, Addison and Reed are out wide while Addison runs a deep curl route. Notice how, at the top of the route, Reed sinks his hips right after Addison does. That’s another sign of excellent route recognition as the cornerback runs the route for the receiver again. So, Reed gives up no separation and perfectly plays through Addison’s back to get a PBU.

Reed also has fluid hips that can help him recover in coverage.

For example, he opens the gate a little too quickly against the wideout’s outside stem in the rep above, which is what the wideout wants to happen on the slant route. However, Reed can flip his hips 180 degrees in the other direction — while also recovering from stumbling — to contest the catch at the catchpoint and get another PBU.

That’s pretty impressive to lose at the line of scrimmage and slip yet still win the rep.

This time, Reed is lined up across from arguably the best receiver in the game, Justin Jefferson, and shows off those oily hips again.

The Jets are playing Cover 3, so Reed begins the play with his hips open to the field. But when Jefferson breaks for the out route, the corner seamlessly gets his hips around to stay in phase and contests the catch at the catchpoint, forcing an incompletion.

Also, Reed has great eyes in zone coverage here. Notice how he’s looking at the quarterback and using his peripheral vision to watch the receiver’s route. That allows him to see the throw and still break on the out route from Jefferson, which is difficult to do against a top-tier talent.

To wrap up, we’ll get one more great rep from Reed against Jefferson.

The Jets are in man coverage, with Reed playing press. He shows good patience at the line of scrimmage to keep his hips square as Jefferson releases inside on the circus route. Combined with his speed and some hand fighting throughout the route, the corner runs stride-for-stride with the receiver down the field.

That prevents Jefferson from creating separation on the route and forces Sam Darnold to throw the ball to Jefferson’s back shoulder about 40 yards down the field. As expected, the low percentage throw results in another incompletion.