After piecing together perhaps the best season by a tight end in Redskins history, Jordan Reed showed he can perform in the playoffs too, with more than 100 yards against Green Bay.
When Washington Redskins tight end Jordan Reed is on, few defenses, regardless of scheme or talent, can stop him.
On Sunday afternoon in the Redskins' first playoff game in three seasons, the Green Bay Packers found out how hard it is to stop the University of Florida product.
Even though the Packers' defensive gameplan focused on stopping him, Reed became the first Redskins tight end in franchise history to go over the century mark in a playoff game, as he hauled in nine passes for 120 yards.
Twenty-four of those yards came on a second quarter touchdown connection with Kirk Cousins.
On 3rd-and-10, Cousins found Reed wide-open in the middle of the end zone after the tight end disconnected from safety Micah Hyde with ease.
"I just got to give all the glory to God and my daughter," Reed said after the game of his motivation for playing. "You know, I just want to take care of her. She's my main focus when I play."
Reed's strong afternoon came on the heels of a breakout campaign, as he finished the season with 87 receptions for 952 yards and 11 touchdowns in 14 games.
His 87 receptions and 952 yards were both franchise records for tight ends.
"It was definitely a good season," Reed said. "I feel like we could've done better, you know, but we've got potential. We'll be back next season."
Reed, of course, flashed elite talent during his first two seasons, but he struggled through a series of injuries.
Coming out strong in training camp this season, Reed set out to shed the injury-prone label many had applied to him.
He did.
Not only did he appear in a career-high 14 regular season games, Reed carried the load at tight end with both Niles Paul and Logan Paulsen dealing with season-ending injuries in August.
"God blessed me to stay healthy this season," Reed said. "And I hope to continue that next season and just keep showing what I can do."
Reed is excited about the potential pairing with Paul, who was expected to play have an expanded role this season before going down, once again.
"I think [it'll] be great," Reed said. "You know, Niles is a great player and it'll be a definite matchup problem if we're both out there at the same time with D-Jax [DeSean Jackson] and Pierre [Garçon] still out there and Andre. Got a lot of pieces."
Reed thinks the offense as a whole has the potential to be something special, especially with what they showed this year.
"I think depending on what goes on in the offseason with the moves and makings things like that, we can be a great offense," Reed said. "We just keep on building and keep everybody healthy and we'll be something to mess with."
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