Haason Reddick will enjoy something a bit unfamiliar this season: continuity. He’ll be playing for the same team for consecutive seasons for the first time in three years. After Reddick’s 16-sack season in 2022 -- 19.5, if you count playoffs, too -- there was no way the Philadelphia Eagles weren’t bringing Reddick back.
Over his past three regular seasons, Reddick has compiled 39.5 sacks, 13 forced fumbles and four recoveries for the Cardinals, Panthers and Eagles. He said Tuesday that he’s done hyping his production. It’s time everyone else sits up and takes notice.
“At this point, I’m done talking like I have anything to prove to anybody,” he said, via the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I’ve put enough work out there, I’ve put enough film out there, enough tape out there -- that my play now speaks for itself. People can make their opinions off of that. I don’t have to second-guess myself.”
Reddick, 28, then doubled down on his original sentiment.
“I don’t feel like I have to show anybody anything,” he said. “I’ve done that all. I’m at a point now where I’m done talking like I have anything to prove. I’m done talking like I have anything to prove to anybody.”
Now comes the awkward part. Reddick signed his three-year, $45 million contract with the Eagles not that long ago, in March 2022. But since then, there have been a flurry of deals at his position, including extensions for the Steelers’ Alex Highsmith, the Seahawks’ Uchenna Nwosu and others.
All of a sudden, Reddick is now tied (with Nwosu) for the 15th-highest salary by average per year ($15 million), according to Over The Cap. He has two years remaining on his original deal. The league’s top-paid edge rusher, the Steelers’ T.J. Watt, makes nearly double that.
So does Reddick feel he’s now underpaid?
“I mean,” Reddick said with a laugh, “I ain’t gonna sit here and ... like I said, y’all see it, y’all know what’s going on. I’m just worried about being the best version of myself. And I’ll let everything else sort itself out, truly.”
Reddick was sidelined earlier at Eagles camp with a groin injury before returning to action this week on a limited basis, although he denied he was actually even truly hurt.
“We don’t want a lingering injury -- it’s not even an injury,” he said. “But we don’t want a lingering pain, something that’s going to go on during the season. So we’re just working on it day by day, we’ve been making great progress.”
But Eagles fans shouldn’t fear a protracted holdout springing up out of nowhere, perhaps like the one going on in Indianapolis right now. Reddick said he wanted to be remembered as a “legend” and pledged to maintain the work ethic that helped him reach this plateau in the first place.
“I’m going to keep coming out, keep working, man,” Reddick said. “Those types of [contractual] things have a way of sorting themselves out. So I’m just going to continue to come out, work, prepare myself. Continue to be a better version of Haason Reddick, continue to be a great teammate, go out here, work hard for the guys -- and let those things sort themselves out as they should.”