Dangerfield, who has remained in Victoria this year to finish his schooling, was not expected to play for the Crows this season, but has been named in Adelaide's 22 and will join his teammates when they arrive in Melbourne on Friday evening.
The 18-year-old has been in stellar form in the TAC Cup competition and Reid said the club had great confidence in the impressive teenager's ability to jump from the Geelong Falcons straight to the Adelaide Crows.
Dangerfield, who has played just a handful of SANFL games during school holiday breaks, replaces fellow 2007 NAB AFL Draftee and two-gamer Andy Otten.
"His form for Geelong has been very good, but we put that into perspective. I mean it's an U18 competition and it's a big jump, but we've got a lot of confidence in Patrick," Reid told Radio5aa
"It's a big ask and I'm not sure it's ever been done before – straight from U18s to AFL – but we're confident and we're not setting targets that are unrealistic. We just wan to him to fit into the team pattern."
The Adelaide playing list underwent a massive face-lift at the end of last season and Reid said the club didn't want to be caught out with a lack of depth heading towards September.
"It's at a stage where we're quite happy with young Andy Otten, but the match committee wanted to have a look at Patrick because, depending on what happens in the next couple of weeks, we need to know what we've got available," Reid said.
"I suppose there's a risk in most things you do in footy, but I think it's [playing Dangerfield] a positive risk.
"Andy played on the weekend and we saw a lot of improvement in his performance compared to his first game, so you could argue he's a bit stiff, but we've lost Bernie Vince, we've lost Jason Porplyzia, we've lost Chris Knights and we've lost Brett Burton all out of our midfield/forward line and if we lose any more, we need to know what's available."
Saturday's all-important clash with Essendon will provide Crows fans with their first glimpse at the club's prized recruit in the tri-colours.
Dangerfield, who missed the NAB Cup competition with injury, has already been forced to endure comparisons with SA lad and West Coast youngster Brad Ebert, who was overlooked by Adelaide at the draft, and Reid said it would be exciting to see Dangerfield play his first game after such a long wait.
"There have been two or three opportunities where Patrick nearly got a look in and I think the match committee made a good decision in the sense of making sure we know what's available to us because the next two or three weeks are going to be vital," he said.
"We've got to get into the eight and then you never know where you can go from there."
