Over the course of his Virginia football career, Joe Reed etched his name throughout the record book and helped the program become a consistent winner on the way to an ACC Coastal Division title and the Orange Bowl.
Reed finished with 129 receptions (top 15 in program history) for 1,465 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns. He led the team with 77 catches in 2019 as part of that Orange Bowl season. He also put together a banner career on special teams where he had 106 kickoff returns for 3,042 yards and 5 touchdowns. All three of those numbers remain the best in UVA history. Four of those TD returns measured 90+ yards and he’s tied with Tavon Mason and Marquis Weeks for the school record with a 100-yard return among them.
Reed earned All-ACC (first team all-purpose and kick returner) and All-American (first team Walter Camp Foundation, CBS Sports, second team SI.com) honors. He also won the 2019 Jet Award presented to the nation’s top return specialist.
Reed was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2020 NFL Draft with a fifth round pick. He made the team and played in 11 games that season. He had 21 returns for 435 yards plus 5 carries for 29 yards and 1 touchdown.
Now part of the Alcova Mortgage team, a Sabre sponsor, Reed works to help clients score their perfect home. He also coaches high school football at St. Anne’s-Belfield as an assistant for fellow UVA legend Heath Miller.
Reed brings his football expertise into the fold for this “Ask The Experts” series. Taking questions from fans and The Sabre, he provides his insights on specific topics within the football world. This installment focuses on receivers’ in the running game and downfield blocking where their efforts can help teammates post more yardage.
Are there any differences for receivers in the run game against man or zone defense?
Joe Reed: Yes. So every offense is different, but typically against man, you're pretty much man on. So if you're on the outside, you can either run that corner off or block him. If you're in the slot, you know, you could run a slot fade against that nickel to get him out of the picture, or you can block him. If it goes zone cover two, if you're outside, you want to stay on that corner. If not, it's just force, typically in zone, you want to block that safety - safeties are better tacklers than corners. So unless it's cover 2, you always should go block them toward the safety.
Reading something about that recently, it said how some offenses will try to make the corner make the tackle.
Joe Reed: Oh, every time, every time, unless you're playing a team who has like a dog at corner, you want to block the safety when you can. Unless it's cover two, if it's cover 2, the corner is already sitting in that zone. He can go blow that play up. But other than other than that, yeah, go block that safety.
What are the differences to you between high school, college, and pro blocking for receivers in terms of technique? Is there any difference in terms technique at the three different levels?
Joe Reed: It comes down to the speed of the game and how well a defensive back or linebacker can recognize the run. And the faster the game, the quicker you have to get your feet set, the more decisive you have to be, and the better you have to be able to read his body language. You know, in high school, most DBs are going to backpedal much longer than they have to, or they're going to just keep their head and stay there and pretty much wait for you. In college, it gets a little faster. You know, they're quicker to read run. They're backpedaling and then they're triggering. So in college, you have to do a much better job of attacking the space, getting into his cushion, and getting your feet set. And obviously, in NFL, man, they've seen every different type of play. So they know it's a run before the ball is snapped. So it's really just understanding your leverage, getting yourself set, and getting your hands ready.
What kind of hand positioning did you find the most successful blocking out in space as a receiver?
Joe Reed: Yeah, always getting my hands inside, getting my hands inside the breastplate. You want to hold a little bit. And the more inside you can get with your thumbs up, getting a little bit of that jersey, and keeping him as close as possible. Where people go wrong is they start extending their arms and they have that jersey being held. But getting as close to the defender as you can, getting inside, getting a little bit of jersey, and driving him. If you know the ball is designed to go inside, try to get some inside leverage, block him out, and vice versa.
So you're really trying to stay chest-to-chest almost and hide your hands, basically?
Joe Reed: Yeah, yeah, essentially. And that also helps because, a DB, defensive guy, he'll try to swipe the hands down and swat them. And if he does, you can just easily gather and replace, but you always, you always want to be inside of his hands.
Did you pick up any tips along the way for taking on bigger defenders? Like if you're cracking inside on an end or a linebacker?
Joe Reed: What helped me the most and what I coach now, honestly, just getting the way. When you're blocking, a lot of it just comes down to leverage. And you don't need to always blow a guy up on a crack back block. If you can just get in front of him, scrape him, buy some time for the ball carrier, that worked the best for me as I got playing against bigger defensive backs and bigger linebackers. High school it wasn't a problem at all. College, I had to be more mindful of, okay, this guy's bigger. Do I really want to go head up? Or can I just save a couple of plays on my body? Just scrape them, get in front of them. I know where the ball's going. Just scrape them, get in front of them. I know it's clean. You know, I would hate for a 50-yard touchdown run to get called back because the ref felt like it was an illegal block.
Describe what you mean by scrape just in case people don't know.
Joe Reed: The best way I can describe a scrape block is it's almost like setting a screen in basketball, you know protect yourself, but literally just get in front of that guy. If you're running at an angle, you can almost just cut him off and then put your hands up just to block him off and that'll give the ball carrier time, especially if it's a crack block where he doesn't even see you coming. You have time to take that leverage, get in front of him, and just wall him off. And then everybody, it's clean, everybody's safe, and the run won't get called back.
On RPO plays or when a quarterback's just scrambling, what keys do you look for in the defensive back to realize it's no longer a pass but it's flipped to a run. And on scramble situations, did you ever have to look back at the quarterback to realize that he's now running versus running scramble drill?
Joe Reed: For RPO, you can always tell a sense of the DB's body language where he goes from actually guarding you to knowing, okay, it's not a route, it's a run. So it's really just that timing mechanism. So if it's man, RPO, I'm on the outside, I'm going to give a release and I'm going to run a fade until he realizes that it's not a real route. I mean, hopefully he never really realizes it, but you know, I run that fade in a way where I don't completely beat him, but I have him on my side. So when I realized that he knows it's a run play, I can gather and get in front of him. So I don't want to just kill him off the line. I want to keep a good relationship to where I don't have to block him. It's similar for zone, you run, give him some time on a route until you say, okay, this guy knows that it's a run play. And that's when you just have to have that leverage to block him.
For scramble drill, it's really a feel. A lot of those routes are progression routes so if you're the first guy, the second guy, the third guy. If you're the third guy, and you finish your route, you don't get the ball, you pretty much know the play's dead. And that's when you go into scramble mode. So anytime I'm at the top of my route, let's say I have a slant and I'm the first guy - if it's not open, it automatically becomes scramble. So knowing where you are in the progression on that certain play, and also knowing where everybody else is, you so you know where to scramble to.
And downfield blocking at that point is just instinct?
Joe Reed: Yes, it's all instinct.
Is there any difference in blocking on a receiver screen versus a run play to your side of the field?
Joe Reed: Yeah, so the screens can be tricky. You don't want to block too early if the ball is going beyond the line of scrimmage. That's offensive pass interference. And if the ball is behind the line of scrimmage, you can block whenever you want, but it's just a matter of getting really good leverage. You don't have as much room to set up that block on a screen play. It's almost like bang, bang. So if it's a screen to your side and you take a bad angle, the play is blown up. So screen blocking is something that we spend a lot of time on because when it works, it's a really good play. I think blocking for a screen is much harder. Blocking for a run play, you have more time to set it up, you have more time to get to that leverage. And, you know, a lot of times that the DB will help you out on that run play to get in position on the receiver.
So when they give you the ball on a run play as a receiver, are you able to read blocks the same as in the kick return game? And if not, how is it different?
Joe Reed: Yeah, it's a little different because I don't have as much time to read those blocks, I don't have as much time to set those blocks up. So when I return kicks, I could set up if I was going left. I had about 10 or 15 yards to set them up right to then go left. Or vice versa. Or on a middle return, I could set them up either way to hit it in the middle. For rushing as a receiver, it happens a little faster. Most times it'll be a jet sweep. So the first indicator is, if I go in motion, does this guy follow me? If he does, OK, it's man. If not, I know I'm getting this jet sweep against the zone. So it could be a cover 2 and I have to know that corner is probably going to be sitting there if it is cover 2. So those are the two differences. You have to think a little faster on the rushing side of things. And lining up, seeing if it's a 6-I outside. If it's a 6-I, you know you have to bubble around that guy. If you try to go inside, you probably won't get that many yards.
6-I is the technique?
Joe Reed: Yeah, 6-I is the defensive end technique. So he'll be outside pretty much walling off everything outside, making sure nothing gets around him.
Blocking for a run is probably the least glamorous part of being a receiver. What allowed you to buy in to that as a receiver individually and as a coach now, have you found anything to kind of incentivize those receivers to go block?
Joe Reed: I mean, blocking for the run, the run game opens up the pass game. If your run game's bad, unless you're just really dynamic and throwing the ball around, it'll be a lot tougher to pass. If a defense knows that this running back can rush for 100, 120 yards a game and that the receivers are blocking well, it opens up a lot in the passing game. And also just, and I tell my players now, your departure from the line of scrimmage, making it look the same for run and pass. If you do that, it's really hard to know what's coming at you. So blocking, especially in college, blocking meant a lot to us because we knew it would just open up the pass game as the game went down the line.
If you block well, do you find the corner gets distracted by you coming to block even when it's a passing play?
Joe Reed: Oh, for sure because he doesn't know if you're blocking, if you're running a go route, or what. And it all starts with the line of scrimmage. So every day at practice, my receivers, I do stance to start because I want that start off the line of scrimmage to look the same, whether it's to run a route or to block.
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