ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Back in the spring, Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan cracked that he wants former NFL safety and current Bills assistant defensive backs coach Ed Reed to stay in shape in case Buffalo needs help in their defensive backfield this season.
That's no joke, according to Reed.
"I got two or three years in me," he said Thursday. "But I'm not giving it to the league. I already decided not to. Things could happen, but I don't think there's enough finances to get me in those cleats anymore, man. They tend not to want to play the vets."
Not enough finances? What would the number have to be?
"What's the lottery?" Reed responded. "It's like 308 [million]? 306? Something like that, right? I got to hit the lottery."
If there's any time that Reed might feel the itch to play again -- without hitting the lottery, of course -- it will be this Sunday when he makes his NFL coaching debut on the same field, M&T Bank Stadium, where he spent most of what is likely to become a Hall of Fame career.
The Bills will open their season Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens, the team that Reed knows better than any other. He spent 11 seasons, 2002-12, in purple and black, winning a Super Bowl ring in February 2013 and making nine Pro Bowl appearances.
Reed, who retired in May 2015 after brief stints with the New York Jets and Houston Texans in 2013, insisted Thursday that his new life as a coach will curb any added enthusiasm he might have from being on familiar turf Sunday.
"I'm not playing, so the emotions are pretty much even-keeled for me," he said. "As a player, when you're between those lines, it's totally different. I'm coaching now. More laid back. I'm actually in the booth. I'm sitting down. There's food out there if you need it. I'm looking at the whole 22 [players] as if I'm studying tape.
"So it's a huge difference, man. Do I still get a little jacked? I get more nervous standing up in front of those guys and giving my dissertation to them. As I told them, 'I'm more nervous doing this than I am on the football field.' Because you want to get it right. You're teaching people now."
Some of Reed's most well-known teammates from his best days with the Ravens -- linebacker Ray Lewis, defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and others -- have retired or are no longer with the club. But others, such as outside linebacker Terrell Suggs and quarterback Joe Flacco, remain.
"Pre-game, I'm sure a lot of those emotions will be there, because a lot of those guys I know," he said. "I actually gave a speech to the team for the ring of honor when I went in there [last season]. ... So it's going to be fun. This is a game. At the end of the day, this is a game. Nothing crazy is going to happen after or before -- praise God for that -- but I'm really just even-keeled with it right now.
"Come Sunday, it might be different. I'm gonna be mic'd up and they're going to do some things with the camera and all that, follow me around. So it might be different. I'm sure it will be."
Ryan is no stranger to Baltimore, either, having served as the Ravens' defensive line coach from 1999-2004 and their defensive coordinator from 2005-08. The Bills' head coach noted Tuesday that there is a pride factor when defensive players wear a Ravens sticker on their helmet.
"I haven't watched the [Ravens'] defense, but I know [Ravens defensive coordinator] Dean Pees and I know how he is," Reed said Thursday. "Great man, great coach, and I know his mentality -- the tradition of Baltimore, that defense -- is still around there.
"The mentality as a team might have changed a little bit, but the defense still, you see they do what they do. They're still hunting, they still run to the ball. Some things just won't leave from around there because there's a lot of guys around there who won't let it change."
Change, however, has been part of Reed's life in Buffalo since Ryan called him with the coaching opportunity in January. The transition hasn't always been easy, he admitted Thursday.
"At times, no, it's not as easy [not being a player]," he said. "But you learn to fight that off. There's some times when I want to get out there and show those guys a certain technique and show them how to do it -- and I do. But I know how to channel that. I work out. I have a lot of studying I have to do from a coach's perspective, so the transition actually happens easy because you got a lot of work to do. You ain't got time to think about it.
"But I always been a coach, man. I always been a player, I always been an athlete. There's just certain things you do to kind of get that competitiveness out. [I knew] that I was no longer a player a long time ago. That's why I retired. So all that's gone. That life is behind me, man. Here I am, Coach Reed."