Ravens hopeful Ed Reed will be back by seventh week

OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh said that it’s absolutely a strong possibility that star free safety Ed Reed could be activated from the reserve physically unable to perform list as soon as the seventh week of the regular season.

The Ravens had hoped Reed could be back for the first game, but Reed wasn’t comfortable coming back that soon. He'll be out for at least the first six weeks of the regular season.

“We were really hoping he could do it,” Harbaugh said. “He made the decision in the end. I think he feels with the team interest first that’s the best thing, but he’ll be ready to go soon enough. I know we can play well when he’s not there, and look how much better we’re going to be when he gets back.”

Tom Zbikowski will start in place of the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

A six-time Pro Bowl selection, Reed had surgery in April.

“This is my first surgery and I just wanted to make sure that I was 100 percent, and I didn’t feel 100 percent,” Reed said in a Sirius radio interview. “I still have some weaknesses. I probably could have went out there and kinda maneuvered my way around for a couple of weeks until I really got myself back together but I didn’t know if that was going to be fourth, fifth week or whatnot.

“And it wasn’t gonna do any justice to the team after they put in all that hard work this offseason and training camp for that one guy who we probably needed on the roster that was probably 110 percent and could have gave us a special teams play or maybe even a defensive play here or there.”

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(nationalfootballpost.com)