Malik Reed Explains Why he Studies Bucs' Edge Rusher Shaquil Barrett
Malik Reed quietly exited his second year in the NFL as the leader in sacks for the Denver Broncos. One year removed from going undrafted out of Nevada, Reed bested his edge-rushing counterpart Bradley Chubb for the team lead.
Chubb earned a Pro Bowl nod with a little help from his draft pedigree as a former top-5 pick. Meanwhile, Reed's eight sacks edged out Chubb's total by one-half.
Former undrafted guys, to garner the same level of accolades as their first-round drafted brethren, have to burn twice as bright. Just ask long-time Broncos cornerback Chris Harris, Jr.
Reed isn't caught up in accolade envy. He's entering camp with the quiet confidence of a third-year player on the ascent.
The fly in the ointment for Reed is the return of eight-time Pro Bowler Von Miller. Miller suffered a season-ending ankle injury on the doorstep of the opener, which gave rise to Reed as a 13-game starter.
The Broncos' coaches gifted the veteran Jeremiah Attaochu three starts last year or else Reed would have gotten all 16 games, though he did appear in every contest with starter-level snaps. Entering 2021, Reed is poised to be the No. 3 rush linebacker behind Miller and Chubb but his mindset views that as nothing but a plus.
“No doubt about it," Reed said on Wednesday after an OTA practice. "I feel like it's going to be so much to go around. The better your overall pass rush is, the better your overall defense is. The more opportunities you get to rush the passer and the more third-down opportunities you get, [means] the more ways you can affect the game. With having Von and Chubb and with having a Dre'Mont Jones in there, they have to game plan for that.”
As a former college free agent, it should come as no surprise that Reed has modeled his game after another guy who didn't hear his name called on draft day. Broncos fans are quite familiar with Shaquil Barrett, now with the World Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“Yeah, no doubt," Reed said. "Shaq is a guy I would watch. [He's] similar to me."
Barrett is also 6-foot-2 but he's got about 15 pounds on Reed and longer arms. Reed has his ways of winning, though, and it starts with his motor.
Of course, Reed has one of the greatest pass rushers of all-time in the same room with him every day but he and Miller don't share many of the same traits. Technique and strategy can be taught by Miller but physically, he's on a different plane than Reed.
So Reed has found his mentors to study; guys he feels align more with his unique physical gifts and limitations. At 6-foot-2, 235 pounds, it's not as if Reed is a small guy. But relative to some of the NFL's premier rushers, he's a tad undersized.
"Even before I got here, I would watch older guys like [former NFL OLB] Robert Mathis and [former NFL DE] Dwight Freeney," Reed explained. "Guys that were a little shorter in stature but really affected the game in a major way. I'll watch the top guys around the league like [Steelers OLB] T.J. Watt and some of the guys that are the top and that everybody watches—[Rams DT] Aaron Donald and how he disrupts the game. It's other guys that I'll watch around the league and guys that have been doing it for a long time and been consistently great at pass rush, [Cardinals OLB] Chandler Jones [is] a guy that has been at the top of the sack charts each and every year.”
Reed credits his understanding of coverage as a big reason why he popped in Year 2. But playing in the same system year over year was also a big boon to his development.
"The pass rush—just getting more comfortable in the things that I did well in the pash-rush game and sticking to those things," Reed said. "Studying the tackles in a different way with the moves that I used the previous season and how I could affect the game going forward. Working on my craft each and every day has led to the improvement."
If Reed continues to learn at the feet of Miller while studying how some of the game's more undersized but still prolific edge rushers, there's no telling what his NFL trajectory could be. Nobody thought Barrett would leave the Broncos in 2019 and go on to lead the league in sacks.
Perhaps a similar fate awaits Reed, whether in Denver or with another team. Under John Elway's front-office leadership, the Broncos have always had a knack for finding those undrafted diamonds in the rough that can rush the passer off the edge.
Perhaps Andre Mintze (formerly of Vanderbilt), whom the Broncos signed as a CFA last month, could be the next in line to carry that torch. Time will tell but Denver also drafted Ohio State's Jonathon Cooper last month and Derrek Tuszka last year so there will some competition behind Reed.
Good luck unseating Reed as the No. 3, though.
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