Troy Polamalu >>> Ed Reed

[Titans_Matt]

1) Ronnie Lott

2) Ed Reed

3) Ken Houston

4) Emlen Tunnell

5) Paul Krause

6) Troy Polamalu 

[Xenos]

5 hours ago, RamblinMan99 said:

Forget stats.  

Yeah,  Reed had double the interceptions and he was a ball hog, but Troy made plays that literally won games.  

If you watched both careers in detail, there's simply no comparison.  

Not saying Reed wasn't great. 

Reed was a better safety than Troy Polamalu. 

He was very intelligent in how he read the quarterback's awareness.  

But, Troy was a much better football player overall.  

He had the all natural athleticism to make superhuman plays that no other player in the entire league could make.  

 

Different positions. It's like comparing Troy to Ray Lewis.

[ThatJaxxenGuy]

This is a bad take.

It is flat out wrong to say Ed Reed didn’t make the game changing plays Polamalu did. There are plenty of games Ed Reed put on his back and won. In 08 Ed Reed had two interceptions (one on their last offensive possession) against the Redskins, and a force fumble which he then recovered for a touchdown. That’s a one man wrecking crew and he took over games like that year after year such as when he ate Chad Pennington’s soul in the wild card with two picks (one for six) when he was having what many considered an MVP caliber year, or the laundry list of interception yardage records (famously securing records by breaking his previous bests), the blocked punts, the punt return tds, the strip sacks, the most career interceptions in the playoffs, and on and on...

They played different positions. Except for when they didn’t, because Ed Reed was a move-around, in-the-box Strongside Safety the year he won defensive player of the year...

Listen to Belichik talk about Reed. He gushes. And I don’t remember Brady famously having to write on his wrist band that he had to find Polamalu in every play and keep his passes low as a warning to himself like he would when playing against Reed. And don’t even come at me that Polamalu was more versatile because he played all over the field. Ed Reed did that first and he did it better.

Troy Polamalu is an all-time great and definitely deserving of being in the Hall on his first crack at it, but Ed Reed is the best playmaker the safety position has ever seen.

It’s honestly crazy to me that people would think it’s even close.  

Edited February 2, 2020 by ThatJaxxenGuy

[ThatJaxxenGuy]

2 hours ago, Elky said:

Brady made Polamalu look like a scrub every time we played against Pittsburgh.

And he had to write notes to himself on his wrist band to find 20 on every play and keep passes low when he played against Ed Reed. The GOAT recognized the GOAT

[DannyB]

[JAF-N72EX]

I wonder how many of you have actually watched either of them play.

I would bet that the majority of posters who comment in this thread were not even born until in or around '95-'05 and are only drawing their conclusions from social media and raw stats with no context.

The thread is less than 2 full pages in and we have already had 3 references to an old (edited) youtube video with Belichick and Brady talking about Reed (with one poster already basically quoting a comment from said video). I wonder what the perception would be had hard knocks edited a video of Belichick and Brady talking about Troy?

**** like this is funny to me.

Edited February 2, 2020 by JustAnotherFan

[RavensDefense3]

polamalu becomes more underrated as time goes on for some strange reason he was rightfully regarded as one of the best defenders in the league when he was playing and he's an easy first ballot HOFer i wouldn't blame anyone for taking troy over ed and im a ravens fan

[RamblinMan99]

6 hours ago, ThatJaxxenGuy said:

This is a bad take.

It is flat out wrong to say Ed Reed didn’t make the game changing plays Polamalu did. There are plenty of games Ed Reed put on his back and won. In 08 Ed Reed had two interceptions (one on their last offensive possession) against the Redskins, and a force fumble which he then recovered for a touchdown. That’s a one man wrecking crew and he took over games like that year after year such as when he ate Chad Pennington’s soul in the wild card with two picks (one for six) when he was having what many considered an MVP caliber year, or the laundry list of interception yardage records (famously securing records by breaking his previous bests), the blocked punts, the punt return tds, the strip sacks, the most career interceptions in the playoffs, and on and on...

They played different positions. Except for when they didn’t, because Ed Reed was a move-around, in-the-box Strongside Safety the year he won defensive player of the year...

Listen to Belichik talk about Reed. He gushes. And I don’t remember Brady famously having to write on his wrist band that he had to find Polamalu in every play and keep his passes low as a warning to himself like he would when playing against Reed. And don’t even come at me that Polamalu was more versatile because he played all over the field. Ed Reed did that first and he did it better.

Troy Polamalu is an all-time great and definitely deserving of being in the Hall on his first crack at it, but Ed Reed is the best playmaker the safety position has ever seen.

It’s honestly crazy to me that people would think it’s even close.  

Yeah, that's why Belichick said that if he were playing for New England, he would've kept him on the punt return team.  

He never said anything that demeaning about Troy Polamalu.

In all seriousness, Reed deserves a ton of credit for his ability to return the football for points after the interception. He's probably one of the best of all time for that.  

But, most of his interceptions were thrown right to him.  He didn't have to run completely across to the other side of the field to nab the football.  But, that's not to say that Reed didn't do much on his part.  He gets a lot of credit for just being in the right position on the field and playing the zone so well.  

Polamalu was a whole different type of beast, though.  

Most of his interceptions came completely out of nowhere.  He was either extending his body for the pick after running across the field or he was diving for the ball with just one hand underneath.  Sorry, but Ed Reed wasn't making plays like that.  

And, most of Troy's tackles were behind the line of scrimmage for a loss.  He wouldn't even give the RB a chance.  And, not to mention those crazy plays when he was supposed to be playing man, took a gamble and jumped over the line at the snap of the football.  

Troy has more career tackles, more forced fumbles, more sacks, etc.  

Troy was the core definition of being all around the field.  

Reed was an old reliable, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  He was consistent, and that is Hall of Fame worthy.  

But, Troy's plays not only were more amazing and more consequential in the big game, but he was a much more exciting player to watch overall.  

 

[BayRaider]

Ed Reed for me. Ahh I miss the old Reed vs Troy debates when they were still playing. 
 

I’ll say no one can match Troys work ethic and effort. 

[Malik]

5 hours ago, JustAnotherFan said:

I wonder how many of you have actually watched either of them play.

I would bet that the majority of posters who comment in this thread were not even born until in or around '95-'05 and are only drawing their conclusions from social media and raw stats with no context.

The thread is less than 2 full pages in and we have already had 3 references to an old (edited) youtube video with Belichick and Brady talking about Reed (with one poster already basically quoting a comment from said video). I wonder what the perception would be had hard knocks edited a video of Belichick and Brady talking about Troy?

**** like this is funny to me.

I mean I think a lot of us saw in real time the Patriots regularly demoralize those Steelers defenses in ways that rarely happened when Reed was on the field.

[RamblinMan99]

1 hour ago, Malik said:

I mean I think a lot of us saw in real time the Patriots regularly demoralize those Steelers defenses in ways that rarely happened when Reed was on the field.

Yeah, the 2012 season.  That's the one season that you're referring to. 

You are clearly making it look like Baltimore did that to New England across a 20 year span.  

[BleedTheClock]

13 hours ago, M.10.E said:

This is a bad take

Have you read this dude’s posts? This is the best one he’s ever made, being granted a D-. 

[BleedTheClock]

@RamblinMan99 get on your burner account and “like” your post so you have someone on your side. 

[ThatJaxxenGuy]

4 hours ago, RamblinMan99 said:

Yeah, that's why Belichick said that if he were playing for New England, he would've kept him on the punt return team.  

He never said anything that demeaning about Troy Polamalu.

In all seriousness, Reed deserves a ton of credit for his ability to return the football for points after the interception. He's probably one of the best of all time for that.  

But, most of his interceptions were thrown right to him.  He didn't have to run completely across to the other side of the field to nab the football.  But, that's not to say that Reed didn't do much on his part.  He gets a lot of credit for just being in the right position on the field and playing the zone so well.  

Polamalu was a whole different type of beast, though.  

Most of his interceptions came completely out of nowhere.  He was either extending his body for the pick after running across the field or he was diving for the ball with just one hand underneath.  Sorry, but Ed Reed wasn't making plays like that.  

And, most of Troy's tackles were behind the line of scrimmage for a loss.  He wouldn't even give the RB a chance.  And, not to mention those crazy plays when he was supposed to be playing man, took a gamble and jumped over the line at the snap of the football.  

Troy has more career tackles, more forced fumbles, more sacks, etc.  

Troy was the core definition of being all around the field.  

Reed was an old reliable, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  He was consistent, and that is Hall of Fame worthy.  

But, Troy's plays not only were more amazing and more consequential in the big game, but he was a much more exciting player to watch overall.  

 

If you don’t think Ed Reed made interceptions when he came out of nowhere and seemed to be in two places at once, you haven’t seen him play. Ed Reed would sprint from 20 yards deep down field to jump in front of an 8 yard hook on the boundary and steal it because he read the play.  He was THE ball hawk. 

Most of Troy Polamalu’s tackles were for loss? That’s just untrue. He had like 800 tackles in his decade+ career. You really think he had 400+ tackles for loss? 

This just sounds like someone who watched a couple highlight videos on YouTube and didn’t actually watch them play. 

Troy Polamalu had more sacks by 6 and more Forced Fumbles by 3. Ed Reed has doubled him in interceptions 64-32! And has 3 times as many of  his defensive touchdowns 3-9. He also has the record for most interceptions in a playoff career.

The ball was thrown right to him? It’s called jumping the play and stealing the ball. Both were great at it but Reed was better- hence he’d catch the ball in stride going the other way with a chance to score, and Polamalu would get it tripping and falling all over himself. Substance over style all day. 

Ed Reed didn’t make consequential plays? Man, you’re lost.

Edited February 2, 2020 by ThatJaxxenGuy

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu were great players in their own respects. Troy was more around the line of scrimmage being a joker, whereas Ed Reed was playing deep and being a joker. Both made tremendous impacts on games and should be regarded as among the best at their positions. Personally, I think Ed Reed is the greatest FS to ever play, but Ed Reed's play is what inspired me to play Safety in football and become a Ravens fan in the first place, so there's some bias there.

However, directly comparing the two would be like saying Lawrence Taylor is better than Ray Lewis. Sure, they're both linebackers but they play vastly different positions and styles and comparing them really isn't accurate. They were both great at what they did best. I'll never forget Ed Reed's interceptions, laterals, and returns. I'll never forget Troy's jumping over the line of scrimmage or his blitz off the edge to strip sack Flacco in the playoffs.