The New York Jets certainly did their best to add some firepower to their defense ahead of the 2024 National Football League season.
New York had some high hopes for the campaign and went out and made a big move in acquiring two-time Pro Bowler Haason Reddick from the Philadelphia Eagles in a trade. There was no way to know how things would turn out.
Reddick held out for a while and played in just 10 games as a member of the Jets. Over that stretch, he wasn’t anywhere near the player he was with the Eagles. In two years as a member of the Eagles, he tallied 27 sacks in 34 games played. With the Jets, he had just one sack in 10 games played.
Now, Reddick is going to be a free agent and it certainly would be a shock if he was back in New York. Nothing can be ruled out until he signs elsewhere, but after such an odd year, it would be surprising if the Jets were to even want him back.
Some team will take a chance on him, though, and The Athletic’s Mike Jones predicted that team will be the Arizona Cardinals.
“Arizona Cardinals: Edge Haason Reddick,” Jones said. “The 2017 Cardinals first-round pick is a free agent after a frustrating 2024, when he was traded from the Eagles to the Jets, who both declined to grant his wishes for a long-term contract extension. Now Reddick hits the open market, and his former team makes a lot of sense.
“The Cardinals need pass-rushing help after no player managed more than five sacks in 2024, and the team ranked 13th in this statistic. After a lengthy holdout, Reddick appeared in only 10 games for the Jets, starting two of them. But he recorded double-digit sacks in the four seasons prior and could fill a big need for Arizona.”
Reddick played the first four seasons of his career as a member of the Cardinals so this prediction isn’t too shocking. It’s unfortunate that things didn’t work out for the Jets, but they were just unlucky it seems.