April 01, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Right move? Time will tell, but the Eagles are still losing a lot from trading Haason Reddick regardless.
In a Friday news dump, and under the cover of the Phillies' Opening Day, the Eagles traded star edge rusher Haason Reddick to the New York Jets for a conditional third-round pick in the 2026 draft.
It's not a popular move – and was never going to be – but after he was granted approval to seek a trade, after Josh Sweat's contract got restructured, and after they signed Bryce Huff to a three-year deal once free agency opened, the writing was on the wall here.
But was it the right call? Or are the Eagles worse off now? Can Huff, Sweat, Nolan Smith, and one more year of Brandon Graham cover for losing a pass rusher who was arguably the Defensive Player of the Year at one point?
Let's take a look at what they're saying after the trade...
Big picture, trading Reddick did make sense for the Eagles, but that hardly means it's without any risk, because there absolutely is here.
Realistically, Reddick likely has a good bit of football left in him, and that level of production isn't so easily parted with even if the heavy salary and term that would've had to have been paid for an edge rusher approaching 30 justify moving on, as Jeff Kerr writes:
Reddick wanted a pay raise for past performance and it was easy to understand his case. Only Reddick and Myles Garrett had 10+ sacks in each of the last four years -- and Reddick accomplished the feat with four different defensive coordinators and three different teams. The Eagles paid Reddick an average annual salary of $15 million per season, good for 20th amongst edge rushers in the NFL.
By all accounts, Reddick was underpaid. The Eagles weren't going to give Reddick a significant bump in pay or a new contract for a 30-year-old pass rusher. Reddick was traded to the New York Jets for a conditional 2026 third-round pick (which is bumped up to a second-round pick if Reddick gets 10+ sacks or plays 67.5% of the snaps).
The trade did make sense for the Eagles, yet they are taking a huge gamble by moving on from Reddick when he has some good football left. [CBS Sports]
In a way, it's like a textbook Joe Banner throwback. Those Eagles teams that dominated the NFC East through the early-mid 2000s were notorious for cutting popular and high-performing defensive players loose a year or two too early – not even Brian Dawkins was safe from that – but they always managed to restock and circle back into being competitive quickly.
And Howie Roseman was Banner's understudy.
There's no guarantee that this move is going to prove right for the Eagles, but if it's going to, there are names that the organization will be looking toward to step up for this to work, chief among them...
Brandon Graham will be the veteran presence for one more year, the Eagles are hoping Josh Sweat continues to improve year over year as he has and are also hoping that they really did find a diamond in the rough with Bryce Huff.
But part of trading Reddick, too, is placing faith in Nolan Smith to step up in year 2.
This is his shot, as Chris Franklin writes:
The Eagles hope new free agent signee Bryce Huff will step up and be a significant contributor who fills in for Reddick’s production over the last two seasons. However, the Eagles need their former first-round pick, linebacker Nolan Smith, to make a bigger impact in his second season and become the player they envisioned, especially after Smith finished with 12.5 sacks and 20 tackles for loss during his time at Georgia.
Smith did not get a chance to show off much of what made him the 30th pick overall, finishing last season with a sack, 18 tackles, a tackle for loss, and three quarterback hits in 188 defensive snaps last season. Smith was used to playing defensively two ways last season: As a traditional edge rusher and as an off-the-ball linebacker who was asked to play in some coverage snaps.
Smith will have some guidance on how to be an impactful player, especially with defensive end Brandon Graham returning for one more season, deciding to retire after the finale of next season. Graham has already left a mark on Smith, with Smith jokingly telling Graham that he promised him he would play for two seasons, which now looks as if it will be coming to fruition. [NJ.com]
Now that the dust has somewhat cleared from free agency, the Eagles and Jets essentially swapped Reddick for Huff, respectively, plus a couple of extra moving parts.
Huff has generally been viewed as an edge rusher on the rise, but Reddick is an already well-established name, though with the presumed expectation now that a new contract/extension from New York will be on the way for him as well.
The Jets slingshotted themselves from a rebuild into a tight win-now window once they got Aaron Rodgers, which is only that much tighter now after they already lost a year of him from that Achilles tear.
So does this move even make sense for the Jets?
Some perspective from the opposite side of the trade from Andy Vasquez:
Also, at 26, likely, Huff has yet to hit his prime. Reddick, who turns 30 is likely in the middle of his. Don’t believe me? Michael Strahan had his best seasons at age 30 and 32; Reggie White was still at the top of his game at age 30-32 as he transitioned from the Eagles to the Packers. Bruce Smith had double-digit sacks every year from age 29 to 35.
We’re not saying the Jets should or can sign him to an extension, where Reddick will surely be asking for something in the range of $25 million a year. But there’s every reason to believe with the Jets, he’ll be the same elite edge rusher we saw the last four years.
And lets not forget, Huff was almost exclusively a third-down pass rusher in his breakout season playing only 42.2% of the snaps. Reddick has proven himself on every down (he played 74 percent of the snaps for the Eagles in 2023). [NJ.com]
The whole situation essentially backed the Eagles into a corner as far as what they could do.
A conditional third-rounder two years from now that can convert into a second for their best pass rusher from the past two seasons? Yeah, that return seems underwhelming.
But the Eagles did sign Huff well before the trade in anticipation that they were either going to lose one of Reddick or Sweat and did have to settle on a deal with the rest of the league knowing that they had to.
Probably did pretty well with it then, all things considered.
Wrote Jeff Howe, who gave the Eagles a B grade for the trade:
Let’s look at this from a different perspective.
The Eagles knew they were at a crossroads with Reddick, so they got much younger by signing Huff away from the Jets. Huff, who turns 26 next month, is on an upward trajectory after a career-best, 10-sack season.
Then, they swung Reddick to the Jets and recouped a future second-day draft pick. That’s good business. I’m not trying to pretend this was part of general manager Howie Roseman’s elaborate long-term scheme, but he deserves credit for getting creative during an offseason when changes were necessary. [The Athletic]
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
