Florio says Ed Reed is using Suggs’ injury as leverage…

I’m not Mike Florio’s biggest fan… although I liked him several years back prior to his Pro Football Talk blog turning “corporate”.  He was a lot edgier back then with breaking news.

Now it seems like Florio is more about speculative commentary. That’s his thing.

So it didn’t surprise me to see this item on May 21st—

Reed Using Suggs’ Injury As Leverage? Mike Florio seems to think so…

Is there a link between Suggs’ injury and Reed’s musing about retirement? I picked this report up from Sarah Ellison who works for the Ravens PR department, as she was reacting to Mike Florio’s theory that Ed Reed’s quest for a new contract could benefit from the loss of Terrell Suggs (who may be out for most of the season as he rehabs a repaired Achilles tendon).

Earlier this offseason, Reed first indicated that he would be back for this season and many more to come. He later said he wanted a new contract and respect. After Suggs’ injury, Reed started with retirement talk, but then quickly backtracked after it created a stir.

It’s possible that Reed sees the loss of Suggs as leverage to get the Ravens to come to the negotiating table. But for his strategy to work, Reed has to make the possibility of retirement believable, says Florio.

“Reed surely still wants that new contract, and Reed seems to realize that, with Suggs injured, Reed suddenly has the leverage to make it happen — but only if he makes the Ravens think he’s serious about walking away,” wrote Florio. “The problem is that, like many other players, he loves the game and he can’t pretend he would retire when he knows in his heart that he won’t.”

“Don’t be surprised if the musings about possibly retiring continue, despite what Reed has most recently said.  … The billionaires who own NFL teams didn’t become billionaires by not making shrewd business decisions.  For Reed, it would be very shrewd — and justified — to make the Ravens sweat about the possibility of having neither Suggs nor Reed in 2012.”

My personal bet— Reed will be playing for the Ravens in 2012. But don’t expect to see him arrive early in training camp.