Washington Commanders' Jeremy Reaves 'excited' about new contract, opportunities with team

Jeremy Reaves is entering the 2024 NFL season with a mission in mind.

Reaves is ready to show that the 2022-23 season wasn’t a “fluke.”

That season, Reaves, a Pensacola Catholic alum, was named to the Pro Bowl as a special teams starter for the first time in his career, and also earned an all-pro nod.

Looking to continue momentum last year, Reaves suffered a partially torn ACL injury in Week 5, ending his season. Reaves now has new contract in place with the Washington Commanders, which was reported by ESPN insiders on Wednesday and later confirmed by Reaves on social media.

“I’m pissed, not going to lie. I was pissed last year, to be honest. … There was chatter like, ‘Oh, he only did it one year.’ That’s fine. That one year was the only year I’ve been able to go out there and show what I can really do,” Reaves said of his "mission" going into 2024. “To be honest with you, I’ve been pissed since I started because I was undrafted. So I’m always going to be mad. … There’s definitely that chip on my shoulder. I want to show people that it wasn’t a fluke, and it’s who I am. And that also, no matter how many times I fall down, I’m going to get back up.”

Reaves’ new contract is reportedly a two-year deal, but Reaves said he couldn’t discuss the terms because, as of Thursday, things weren’t official. He was flying to Washington to sign the contract on Friday.

“I can’t talk about it because I don’t know, honestly,” Reaves added with a laugh. “I do know it’s a deal that all parties are happy with.”

It has since been reported that Reaves' contract is a two-year deal for $6 million, with $2.625 million of that guaranteed.

Reaves has been with Washington since he started his NFL career. Minus several months with the Philadelphia Eagles, who signed Reaves as an undrafted free agent in April 2018 but waived him in September 2018, the Commanders – then known as the Redskins – are all Reaves have known.

In his first few seasons, Reaves started on the team’s practice squad before being promoted to the active roster later in the season. Reaves made the 53-man roster out of training camp for the first time in 2022, the same season he was named to the Pro Bowl. Reaves signed a tender with the Commanders last year, and now has the two-year contract in place.

This was Reaves’ first time in the frenzy of free agency in the NFL. Up until this point, he had either been a restricted free agent – a player with less than three accrued seasons in the NFL who receives a qualifying offer from a team – or under contract.

“I’ve heard a lot of stories about journeymen who go to all these different places and teams, and that worked for them. I’m fortunate my story hasn’t had to be that. It’s something I’ve always said since I went to college: where you start is where you finish if you can control that,” Reaves said. “There was interest from other teams, but at the end of the day, I was looking forward to getting this deal done with Washington the entire time. I was excited about the opportunity to just go back and keep working at what I started there.”

‘This was one of the toughest things I’ve been through’

Reaves, a safety and special teamer, was pretty blunt when talking about his ACL injury. He referenced a back injury he had while playing at Pensacola Catholic, but this was the first time he’s had to have surgery in relation to an injury.

For the first weeks to a month of recovery, Reaves was non-weightbearing, and couldn’t walk around. He had to use crutches to get around. “I couldn’t use the restroom on my own,” he mentioned.

“I will say this was one of the toughest things I’ve been through,” Reaves said. “I have to give a lot of credit to my girlfriend. She was fundamental in me getting back to where I wanted to be. …I don’t know if I could’ve done it by myself.”

Reaves rehabbed with Stark Performance in Pensacola, and just five months in, he’s already “checking off boxes” that would, typically, be at the six- or seven-month mark of recovery, Reaves said. He’s been running around and cutting around, he added.

“I’m getting back to ‘All-Pro Reavo’ as they call me in Washington. I’m getting back to form. … Sometimes you have to have humbling things to remind you what really matters in life,” Reaves said. “Honestly, I could probably do OTAs (organized team practice activity) but they’ll probably be cautious with me and ease me back into things, which is going to kill me. I’m trusting the process. But we’re ahead of schedule. We’re cooking. Whatever they’ll allow me to do, I’ll do. …

“It’s more so been the mental grind of it, just wanting to get back so badly then having to be patient with it. Sometimes you just have to sit back and be patient. I’ve done that and I approached it every day with that mindset, winning every day.”

Embracing Washington: ‘You never know what somebody else is going through’

One of the biggest reasons why Reaves wanted to stay with the Commanders was the Washington D.C. community. It’s a fanbase that as “embraced” Reaves since the beginning, whether it was going to the Pro Bowl or suffering the season-ending injury.

It was clear to see the positivity from Commanders’ fans after Reaves posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had “unfinished business” going into next season.

“That’s been the most fortunate part of all. … Just how they embraced me at not just my good times, but my bad times as well, I went through real-life situations,” Reaves said. “The fans have always been there in my corner. And they’ve always been pulling for me. . The reaction I got when I announced I was coming back, that was just unbelievable. It’s one the best fanbases. If you play the game the right way, and you give your all, they’re going to love you. That’s how the fanbase is built.”

Reaves is notably interactive on social media, talking with fans of him and the Commanders. He said that was “one of the goals” he had for himself once he got into the NFL: remembering his roots and who he is as a person.

His family “raised him that way,” to treat people with “kindness, love and respect.”

“Part of me reaching back out is what I’ve always done. You can never be too big for the moment or people,” Reaves said. “Just being able to get on a phone and respond to somebody on Twitter that might not think you will, you never know how far that can take you or somebody else. You never know what somebody else is going through. … It’s something so small but can go a long way.”

For those that know Reaves from his Pensacola days, it’s nothing new. It’s the same personality he had starting with the Pensacola Tigers youth football program, eventually moving to the Crusaders and the University of South Alabama.

Reaves said Pensacola is the reason he’s playing in the NFL today. He mentioned he comes back to Pensacola every offseason.

“This place is my heartbeat. When I come back home, I remember why I can’t – and won’t – quit. When I was going through tough times, part of the process of getting back up was coming back here and remembering where I started from,” Reaves said. “There’s not enough I could do to repay what Pensacola has done for me.”

Is Jeremy Reaves excited about the new Washington coaching staff? ‘Hell yeah.’

Since Reaves joined Washington in 2018, he’s been a part of three coaching staff “regimes.” Jay Gruden was head coach in 2018, and was fired in the middle of the 2019-20 season. Bill Callahan took over the team for the rest of the year.

Then, Ron Rivera was hired in 2020. It was during Rivera’s tenure Reaves flourished, ultimately earning that Pro Bowl nod.

“(Rivera) embraced me, not only as a coach but as a father-figure. We went through very similar things in life at the same time,” Reaves said. “He lost his mother around the same time I lost mine. We went through real-life experiences together.”

Reaves’ selection to the Pro Bowl was captured in an emotional video with Rivera, who was fired after Week 15 this past season once Washington was eliminated from playoff contention.

Rivera has since been hired by ESPN to be an analyst for NFL Live. “I know (Rivera) is going to land on his feet,” Reaves said.

“I’m forever grateful to Coach Rivera. At the end of the day, he gave me my opportunity. He gave me my chance,” Rivera said. “He’s a warrior, man. The way he battled cancer and still showed up to work every day, it inspired me. … Who he is as a person and what he’s meant to be, words don’t express the gratitude and appreciation I have for him.”

But that’s not to say Reaves isn’t elated about the future of Washington football. When asked about if he was excited to go into the season with the new coaching staff, Reaves – without hesitation – said, “Hell yeah, man.”

The Commanders hired Dan Quinn in February as the next head coach. Reaves was able to speak to Quinn – who told Reaves he likes to be referred to as “DQ” – and general manager Adam Peters before the free agency period, since Reaves was still under contract and negotiating for a new contract had already begun.

During the phone call, they asked Reaves about his experience in Washington and “what they can do to make it better.”

“These guys, they want to win at the end of the day. One of the biggest things that stood out to me is that they said, over and over, they want to compete,” Reaves said. “I play to win, not for a paycheck. … It’s the way I’ve been playing since I was a kid. … You can see the moves Washington is making in free agency, and I’m excited about it. They got the right people in the right spots.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.