After the first one, Ed Reynolds promised his teammates it wouldn’t happen again.
“Early on, on the fade on the sidleine that they scored on early? I told those guys after that play, ‘Look man, that one’s on me,’” Reynolds said. “’I’m making all the rest of them.’”
Reynolds was late getting over to provide safety help on Tyrod Taylor’s 43-yard touchdown pass to Sammy Watkins just 6½ minutes into the Eagles-Bills game Sunday at the Linc.
With the game on the line in the fourth quarter and the Bills calling a similar play?
“The play came to me and I went up and got the ball,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds, who made his NFL debut only two weeks ago, recorded his first NFL interception Sunday, clinching the Eagles’ 23-20 win over Buffalo.
Taylor had thrown a franchise-record 223 consecutive passes without an interception when Reynolds picked him off at the Eagles' 33-yard line with just over a minute left in the game.
It was the first INT Taylor has thrown in more than two months.
“Ed’s exciting to be around because it’s not too big for him and he’s a very good student of the game,” defensive coordinator Bill Davis said.
“He studies it hard, he learned from that first one, and it was good to see.”
Reynolds returned the ball seven yards before taking a knee so the Eagles could run out the clock.
“He was a deep safety and they tried to go over the top, and he’s got to give the corner support on that and just made a great play, made a great range on the ball,” Chip Kelly said.
“Then he made a real good decision. … We practice that but sometimes you get excited and you start to try to run it back. We don't need him to run it back. We can run the clock out. I thought he made a real smart decision just to get down right there, and when he gets down we just put our offense on the field to line up and take a knee.
”
Reynolds, a fifth-round pick last year who spent all of last season and most of this season on the practice squad, said preparation during the week is the key to every play he makes.
This is a Stanford kid. You’re not going to out-think him or out-prepare him.
“Make sure you put yourself in that position multiple times before you actually get there,” he said. “And just being around these guys, man. This whole defensive backfield. We’ve got some old guys who’ve been there, done that and have won Super Bowls.
“I just try to take from them all that I can and go out and make the plays that come my way.”
The Eagles finally promoted Reynolds after 26 weeks on the practice squad on Nov. 20, when they placed Jerome Couplin on injured reserve.
He got a few snaps at the end of the Lions game and the last two weeks has replaced Chris Maragos as the deep safety in nickel against the Patriots.
“For Ed to make that play is just big-time,” DeMeco Ryans said. “You’ve been on the practice squad a long time, now you’re called on to step up and you make that play? It just shows that even though he was on the practice squad, he was still preparing like you’re going to play every week.
“Ed has done a really good job. He’s a sharp kid.”
Reynolds technically isn’t a rookie. He would be in any other sport since he was never on the active roster last year, but the NFL defines rookies as players in their first year of pro football, regardless of participation.
But still. The Eagles have three first-year defensive players they are high on right now in linebacker Jordan Hicks, who was their defensive MVP the first half of the season, corner Eric Rowe, who has been starting since Nolan Carroll was lost for the season, and Reynolds.
This is only the second time since 1945 the Eagles have had three rookie or first-year players record an interception in the same season.
Reyolds said he tried not to get discouraged during his nearly two years on the practice squad.
“Didn’t really try to think about that so much,” he said. “If you get caught up in all that, questioning yourself, questioning your ability, doing whatever, then you lose sight of the main goal, which is actually getting out there on the field, and once your opportunity comes, take it head on. Which is what I’m trying to do every week.”
But how can you not be frustrated not playing a single snap of football from the end of your senior year of college until Week 12 of your second NFL season?
“I’m sure being on the practice squad as long as he’s been, there’s probably some frustration sitting back and watching and having to do all the dirty work,” Malcolm Jenkins said.
“But he had a really strong preseason this year, and we had a lot of confidence in him. I’m sure when he went back on the practice squad [after final cuts in September], I’m sure he was disappointed.
“But we all know how the league goes and how injuries go. You’re one play away from being activated, and he always had this poise about him all year that when he got his opportunity he was going to be ready, and he’s really played a solid role for us the last I guess three weeks he’s been out there.
“We knew early this week just watching how the routes and the game plan set up that he’d have an opportunity to make some plays this game, and I thought he made not only the pick but some other plays, he really did a good job for us. We’re all really proud of him.”