5 Eagles Who Still Need to Prove Themselves After Shaky Start to 2023

4. Haason Reddick

Like Hurts earlier in this story, Haason Reddick’s version of “proving himself” is a little different than most players.

Reddick finished fourth in the NFL Defensive Player of the Year race in 2022, and he needs to prove that he’s legitimately a top-five defender in the NFL.

Unfortunately if we were just basing our rankings on play through the first two weeks of the 2023 season, Reddick hasn’t even made a case for himself as a top-20 defender. He might just sneak onto the list of top-five Eagles defenders, but we expect to see a heck of a lot more than that out of him.

Should we cut him a bit of slack as he gets used to playing with a cast on his broken thumb? Maybe, but even if we cut him slack we’d expect him to not be totally invisible. And he really has been in both games.

Reddick has rushed the passer 72 times this season, and he’s not only yet to record a sack, he’s only hit the opposing QB once. A few hurries have saved his season on the edge from being completely dismal, but you need to get more of an impact out of your star defender.

He’s also been brutal against the run, with no solo tackles, no TFLs and just 1 assisted tackle. PFF gives him a 48.8 run defense grade, and while they’re not always 100% reliable, that certainly matches what the eye test has pointed to for Eagles fans.

Reddick needs to get right quickly if he wants to prove he’s truly the cornerstone of this defense.