Stanford free safety Ed Reynolds will bypass his senior season and turn pro, the school announced Tuesday.
Reynolds (6-foot-2, 206 pounds) should be one of the top three safeties off the board in the May draft. He has good size and speed and is more than willing in run support. He is comfortable in space and can really lay the wood as a tackler.
Reynolds had 87 tackles, an interception and four pass breakups for a stout Cardinal defense this season. In 2012, his first year as a starter, he had six interceptions, including three that he returned for a touchdown, and had 301 interception-return yards, one yard short of the NCAA single-season record. His ballhawking ways led to teams trying to stay away from Reynolds this season.
He is the second Stanford underclassman to declare, joining guard David Yankey.
Reynolds wasn't considered an elite recruit in 2010 out of Woodberry Forest School, a prestigious boarding school in Woodberry Forest, Va. Reynolds is a North Carolina native, and his other recruiting visits were to Duke and North Carolina. Stanford linebacker Shayne Skov is another Cardinal defensive star who went to a boarding school, Trinity Pawling School in Pawling, N.Y.
Reynolds' dad, also named Ed, was a linebacker for the New England Patriots and New York Giants from 1983-92.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.