Jazz Rookie Didn’t Know Who Ed Reed Was. His Coach Fixed That Immediately.

Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy learned a hard truth during a summer league film session: his top draft pick has no idea who Ed Reed is.

Darryn Peterson, the No. 2 overall pick out of Kansas who has been tearing it up in Salt Lake City, sat through a defensive breakdown where Hardy compared the Jazz’s philosophy to the old Baltimore Ravens. Specifically, the way Reed roamed center field, reading quarterbacks and jumping routes like few safeties ever have. Peterson nodded along until Hardy paused and asked him directly: Do you know who Ed Reed is?

“And when he said no, I was upset,” Hardy told Tim MacMahon of ESPN.

So the film session took a hard left turn. Hardy stopped talking about Princeton offense and gap discipline and spent the next 10 minutes running Ed Reed highlights. Not the Hall of Fame induction speech. Not the post-career analysis. The real stuff. The interceptions. The pick-sixes. The way he’d bait a QB into throwing somewhere he wasn’t.

Peterson, to his credit, watched. But he’s also a Bengals fan. So his review of the Baltimore legend came with a built-in apology.

“He was nice,” Peterson said. “I’m not going to say too much. I’m a Bengals guy… I’m sorry, Ed.”

This is the kind of moment that usually lives inside a locker room and never makes it out. But Hardy put it on the record, and honestly it says a lot about both guys. Hardy doesn’t assume players know what he knows. He checks. And when they don’t, he teaches. Peterson doesn’t pretend. He said he didn’t know, watched the tape, and then made a joke about his own team loyalty instead of doubling down on ignorance.

The actual basketball stuff is going well. Peterson has looked every bit like a top-two pick in summer league. Quick first step. Good feel for getting to his spots. Defensive instincts that don’t need a safety comparison to work. The big question coming into the draft wasn’t talent — everybody saw that. It was availability. Peterson had some injury history in college, and that made teams nervous. If he stays on the floor, Utah might have the kind of backcourt star you build a decade around.

In the meantime, he’s got homework. And a Ravens legend to catch up on.