Philadelphia Eagles: Haason Reddick is finally coming home

It happened, it finally happened: After fans spent hours poking the Philadelphia Eagles‘ Twitter account with a stick begging it to do something, Howie Roseman came out swinging from a South Philly boardroom and brought Haason Reddick home.

Before we get too carried away, let’s look at the parameters of the deal; according to Mike Garafolo, Reddick is set to make $45 million over three years, with $30 million guaranteed at signing. If Reddick hits certain incentives, probably based on snaps, sacks, or Pro Bowl appearances, that could balloon up to $49.5 million. But at bare minimum, the team appears to be locked in to the South Jersey product for the next two years at least.

Needless to say, this is a fantastic deal.

No matter how you slice it, Haason Reddick is the exact kind of player the Philadelphia Eagles needed to sign in free agency. He’s 27, was born in Camden, and played his college ball for the Temple Owls at Lincoln Financial Field. After two straight double-digit sack seasons, one with the Arizona Cardinals and the next with the Carolina Panthers, let’s hope Reddick can continue his pass-rushing ways, with a little help from some home cooking, of course.

Haason Reddick fills a big need for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Assuming nothing radically changes – see Fletcher Cox getting traded – the Philadelphia Eagles are set to open up the 2022 NFL season with five Pro Bowlers on their defensive line. They have speed coming off the edge via Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat, who might just be the fastest DE tandem in the NFL, interior/exterior power in Brandon Graham and Milton Williams, and a fantastic 1-2 punch of Javon Hargrave and Cox in the middle.

Outside of maybe adding an older, depth defensive tackle like, say, Gerald McCoy, Ndamukong Suh, or our old pal Malik Jackson, I dare you to find a hole in that unit.

After trying and failing to get much of anything from Ryan Kerrigan in 2021, Jonathon Gannon now has an intriguing defensive chess piece in Reddick, who played his entire NFL career to this point as a 3-4 outside linebacker and could move all over the defensive formation. While conventional wisdom would rightly suggest that Reddick’s role should simplify as a 4-3 defensive end with the Eagles, it’s entirely possible he logs a dozen or so snaps in any given game with his hands off the ground as a hybrid joker off the edge.

As any card-carrying member of Owls Nation can surely tell ya, Reddick played all over Temple’s defense during his run with Matt Rhule. He played safety, rushed the passer, and had the athletic gifts to do it all at a relatively high level. Once his stock blew up at the Reese’s Senior Bowl, many a talent evaluator pegged Reddick as a near prototypical off-ball linebacker, but as his career progressed, it became clear that rushing the passer remained his best talent. But still, having a player like Reddick who can fill an Anthony Barr-type role makes the Eagles’ defense more dynamic and thus harder to pick apart pre-snap.

Remember all of those games where the Eagles’ defense gave up completion percentages of darn near 80 to opposing quarterbacks? Pair Reddick up with two schematically compatible safeties, and Gannon’s playbook should expand considerably.

Regardless of his role, Haason Reddick returning to the City of Brotherly Love is one of the best stories of pre-agency. He is the right age to grow with the Philadelphia Eagles’ core, knows the blue-collar mentality of the city, and has a set of skills that perfectly mirrors his new team’s needs. Will it work? Only time will tell, but needless to say, it’ll be exciting to watch.