A major NFL pass-rusher could be on yet another new team this summer if his reported trade request works out.
Despite being traded there from the Philadelphia Eagles in the offseason, New York Jets outside linebacker Haason Reddick has reportedly asked to be sent to another team after hitting contract disputes with the Jets.
New York general manager Joe Douglas immediately shared a statement after Reddick’s reported request, stating that the Jets had no intention of making a trade happen after just adding him in the spring.
However, this is the NFL we’re talking about, and all it takes is a phone call and the right offer to make a deal like this happen.
Jets GM Joe Douglas on Haason Reddick’s trade request: pic.twitter.com/N5SekYjzEB
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 12, 2024
Reddick posted 11 sacks for the Eagles last season and has been one of the more productive players at his position in the past few years.
Unless he and the Jets come to an agreement, you can’t rule a trade out of the equation. There are plenty of teams who could hypothetically use a player of Reddick’s talents, so let’s go through five of them now.
Atlanta Falcons
No team in the NFL needs Reddick like the Falcons. Seriously. If the Falcons could find a way to add a talent like Reddick to their pass-rushing group, that’d be a huge, huge boost to a pretty middling unit on paper. Reddick would arguably be Atlanta’s most proven pass-rusher since defensive end John Abraham, who last played for the Falcons in 2012. With Kirk Cousins playing with a short contention window before the eventual handoff to Michael Penix Jr., the Falcons need a pass-rusher like Reddick to maximize that potential. Plus, the Falcons just lost rookie outside linebacker Bralen Trice for the season with an ACL injury, so the position looks worse than it did a week ago. Atlanta should at least give New York a call.
Arizona Cardinals
Could Reddick go back to the team that drafted him? It’d make a good bit of sense if he did. Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon coached Reddick in 2022 during the former’s stint with the Eagles as their defensive coordinator, and Arizona could use a top-flight pass-rusher on its ascending defense. With quarterback Kyler Murray healthy and ready to go for the fall, the Cardinals could be a sleeper contender in the NFC. Adding a player of Reddick’s caliber could give this team a real boost and give Cardinals fans a feel-good story of a former draft pick coming back home and living up to his potential.
Baltimore Ravens
It’d be so Ravens for Baltimore to swoop in and add a player like Reddick in August for its Super Bowl push this fall. The Ravens defense will be good without Reddick, so just imagine it with him. If Baltimore felt comfortable with meeting Reddick’s contract demands, he’d give them the A-list outside linebacker the roster doesn’t necessarily have right now. Seeing Reddick terrorize quarterbacks in a Ravens uniform doesn’t feel fair, but since when has Baltimore ever worried about parity when assembling a roster?
San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers have one of the best rosters in football and a lot of money tied up in their stars. However, they also have more than $50 million in cap space right now and a lighter edge rotation than you’d expect. Reddick coming off the bench in San Francisco (or, gulp, starting opposite Nick Bosa) makes the 49ers even more treacherous on paper. While the Brandon Aiyuk contract dispute might prevent the team from handing out any massive contracts right now, adding Reddick, in theory, is the kind of aggressive move that would only bolster this team’s Super Bowl aspirations.
Philadelphia Eagles
Could Eagles general manager Howie Roseman pull off the funniest move of the 2024 NFL offseason and get Reddick back in Philly for a lesser draft pick than what he got from New York in the first place? All while signing 2023 Jets pass-rush breakout Bryce Huff as a free agent? Stranger things have happened, and the Eagles, technically, would give Reddick a home he knows well and a team that has the cash to get a new deal done. The rich would get richer, and Reddick would just go back to how things were before New York.
