Robert Alford isn’t the only former Falcon the Cardinals are signing. Two days after signing Alford, the team has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with Brooks Reed, the team announced on their official site.
Reed’s one-year deal is worth $1.625MM with $250K fully guaranteed, Adam Caplan of SiriusXM tweets. The team’s announcement stated that Reed, who played defensive end in Atlanta, will move to outside linebacker in the Cardinals’ 3-4 scheme. Reed had been with the Falcons for the past four seasons, and had one year left on his contract when the team cut him Wednesday.
Reed initially entered the league as a second round pick of the Texans back in 2011, and signed a five-year, $22MM deal with Atlanta in March of 2015. This past year he appeared in all 16 games for the Falcons with eight starts, but notched just one sack. For his career he has 21.5 sacks through eight seasons. He restructured his deal and agreed to take a pay cut last March to help him stick with the team, but it apparently wasn’t enough to keep him around this year.
Reed had his best years, including a six sack rookie season, while playing outside linebacker with the Texans, so perhaps he’ll return to form here. Since Reed was cut before his contract expired, he was eligible to sign right away and didn’t have to wait for free agency to open. The Cardinals have been aggressive in pursuing veteran players before the market opens, as they already claimed Tanner Vallejo off waivers earlier this week in addition to signing Alford to a three-year deal. They also claimed D.J. Swearinger off waivers from the Redskins late in the season.
Just gonna take all the falcons castoffs
Good low risk higher upside potential signing