RICHMOND — Jordan Reed didn’t feel like himself last season. Appearing in just six games, the Redskins tight end couldn’t recover from a fractured toe suffered in the offseason. The injury hampered his ability to run — and Reed ended up suffering a season-ending hamstring injury as a result.
Ultimately, Reed had two separate surgeries to remove the sesamoid bone in each of his big toes: with the left being done in December and right being operated on in February.
Now, Reed — who was a limited participant in practice when the Redskins opened training camp Thursday — said he feels “100 times better.”
“I can tell a difference because with the toes it was pain. I had pain all season, all offseason, and pain was shutting down certain parts of my body that I needed,” Reed said. “Now, we’ve removed that pain and I’m just getting my body built back up. Now, I’m feeling great again.”
Reed admitted his decision to receive stem cell treatment on his toe in June of last year made the injury a lot worse. He opened training camp last season on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
“The whole month of July I couldn’t run,” Reed said. “Couldn’t really walk. That just really set me back coming into the season. So it was a bad month, a bad choice, poor decision getting that shot.”
If Reed can stay healthy, he’ll be an important part of the Redskins’ offense. The 28-year-old is one of the best receiving tight ends in the league, and coach Jay Gruden has often used him as the primary target on third-down. Carrying a $10.1 million cap hit this season, he is also the team’s fifth-highest paid player.
Reed, who didn’t practice during OTAs because of his rehab from the surgeries, spent Thursday working in individual drills.
He also worked off to the side with quarterback Alex Smith — who’s excited to work with him.
“He is truly, truly unique, gifted special player, and it’s hard to put it into words,” Smith said. “He is a unique guy at the tight end position that can do so many things — route running with the ball in his hands after the catch. He is often times the guy that it doesn’t really matter who’s lined up against him, you know, linebacker, safety, corner, I mean he is a guy that I think has the skills set to win against all these positions so, yeah, we just got to get him back into full [team work].”
Reed will increase his workload as camp continues.
“I’m really excited about this season coming up,” Reed said. “I feel like our offense is going to be explosive and we’re going to have a great year.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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