Austin Reed signed with the Baltimore Ravens on a Wednesday. By that Saturday, he was scoring a rushing touchdown at M&T Bank Stadium — the first time his twin daughters, born three months premature, had ever watched their father play football in person. The moment capped a whirlwind week that began with a roster emergency and ended with the quarterback calling it the coolest thing he's ever experienced.
Reed's path to Baltimore started with a need. The Ravens signed the free-agent quarterback on August 12 after placing third-string quarterback Skylar Thompson on season-ending injured reserve, according to the Baltimore Ravens. Thompson had missed three consecutive practices before landing on IR, and the Ravens moved quickly to fill the opening, turning to a quarterback with an existing tie to their coaching staff. As The Baltimore Banner reported, it was Reed's sixth workout with an NFL team over the previous two seasons, and he began practicing with the Ravens only days before taking the field.
That connection ran through offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, who had coached Reed during the 2024 and 2025 offseasons when both were with the Chicago Bears, per Baltimore Sports Feed. Doyle publicly expressed excitement about reuniting with Reed in Baltimore's quarterback room, the outlet noted. During those two Chicago offseasons, Reed completed 23 of 33 passes for 230 yards and one touchdown across five preseason appearances, never earning a spot on Chicago's 53-man roster, the Banner reported.
A Touchdown Run Two Months After Leaving the NICU
Reed and his wife, Peyton, decided to fly her and their twin daughters, Tatum and Beckham, to Baltimore for the game against Philadelphia, the Banner reported. The girls were born three months premature after Peyton underwent an emergency C-section in April, weighing just 2½ pounds each at birth, according to Reed's account to the paper. They spent their first 83 days in the neonatal intensive care unit at Baylor University Medical Center and required hernia surgeries during their hospital stay, per the same account. The twins, who live with the family in Pensacola, Florida, had left the hospital only about two months before the game.
With no Eagles defender assigned to spy the quarterback, Reed saw an opening and ran it in for a score, the Banner reported. The Ravens went on to win the preseason game 24-7 over Philadelphia on August 15 at M&T Bank Stadium, according to the Ravens, outgaining the Eagles 440 to 159 total yards after starter Lamar Jackson and backup Tyler Huntley were rested following two early series. Reed celebrated the win with Tatum and Beckham afterward, and the Banner reported he called bringing his daughters to the game the coolest thing he's experienced, adding that he hopes they can attend a game while he is actively playing for a team. Two days later, on Monday, the girls were on the Ravens' practice field in Owings Mills.
A Rival Rookie Stole Most of the Snaps
Reed's touchdown went viral, but he wasn't the story of the box score. Undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano completed 22 of 28 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown as the two competed for Baltimore's No. 3 quarterback job, per the Ravens. The competition remains unresolved as the team's August 30 roster cutdown deadline approaches, and Reed has said he hopes Baltimore won't need a fourth quarterback on the roster beyond the preseason. Under NFL rules, all 32 teams must trim to 53 players by 6 p.m. ET that Sunday, according to Raiders.com, with waiver claims on released players due the following day.
The August 15 exhibition also marked the head coaching debut of Jesse Minter, who signed a five-year deal in January to succeed John Harbaugh, as Hoodline previously reported. Rookie wide receiver Ja'Kobi Lane, whom Baltimore drafted at No. 80 this spring, caught the game's opening touchdown from Fagnano in the same contest.
A Career Built on Seizing Long-Shot Chances
Reed's résumé suggests he thrives when handed an opportunity. This spring with the Dallas Renegades, he set a UFL single-game passing record with 376 yards in his Week 1 debut against the Houston Gamblers and finished the season leading the league with a record 21 touchdown passes across 10 games, according to the UFL. He also finished second in the league with 1,923 passing yards. Reed won that starting job by beating out veteran Luis Perez, who had led the UFL in passing yards the previous season, after Renegades head coach Rick Neuheisel opened training camp with an open competition.
Neuheisel, a former Ravens assistant in the 2000s, coached Reed at Dallas and said the quarterback can make something out of nothing, per the Banner. Renegades staff and players also allowed Reed to leave practice early during the spring season so he could spend time with Peyton and the twins in the NICU, the paper reported.
Before his brief NFL stints and his record-setting UFL season, Reed put up big numbers at every level. Across two seasons as Western Kentucky's starting quarterback in 2022 and 2023, he started all 26 games and threw for 8,084 yards with 71 touchdown passes, ranking third in school history in completions, according to Western Kentucky University Athletics. He led all FBS quarterbacks with 4,746 passing yards in 2022 before throwing for 3,340 yards in his final college season. Before that, Reed led Division II West Florida to the 2019 NCAA Division II national championship, setting title-game records with 523 passing yards and six touchdown passes in a 48-40 win over Minnesota State, per University of West Florida Athletics, having thrown for 399 yards by halftime alone.
Whether that track record earns Reed a spot on Baltimore's 53-man roster or a practice squad slot remains an open question with less than two weeks until cutdown day. For now, he has a viral touchdown, a coach's win, and two daughters who got to see their father play football for the first time.
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