I still think that Reed is worth more than 5 million. There are intangible reasons why players such as he and Lewis are worth so much, despite their declining physical skill. Ed Reed still strikes fear in the eyes of the league's top QBs. The only one that has consistently had the 'what ever you want to call it' to challenge Reed on a consistent basis is Rivers. Tom Brady's poor performance in the AFC Championship Game was largely due to his reluctance to make a mistake in Ed Reed's direction. He understands that the ball has to be placed perfectly or it could be a touchdown the other way. Reed is still the only safety with that complete threat.

His ability to diagnose plays is second to none at the safety position. There are times when he knows the play developing before some of the offensive players he is going against. In 2010, teams kept chucking it in Reed's direction and you saw what happened. In 2011, Ben did it out of desperation (Week 1), because he rarely does it and has admitted such several times in the past. They all saw the same result and, for the vast majority of the remainder of the 2012 season, QBs stayed away from Reed.

QBs still fear him enough to hesitate when deciding to throw the ball and place passes off the mark, because they are trying to make them perfect out of belief that they have to. Guys like Earl Thomas are coming up and looking good. Thomas, in particular is a very good tackler. However, coverage wise, Reed is still second to none. Especially, now that Berry is coming back off of an ACL injury.