PHILADELPHIA − If Haason Reddick’s NFL career was going to end, like he certainly thought it was about to, then it was going to be on his terms.
This was early in the 2020 season, and Reddick was in his fourth season with the Arizona Cardinals. The South Jersey native and Temple product was playing inside linebacker, and he was miserable.
It’s quite a change to now, with Reddick in his first season with the Eagles, his hometown team. He had signed a three-year contract last spring worth as much as $45 million, and he was coming off two seasons in which he had a combined 23.5 sacks.
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“I’ve showed that I’m rising star in this league,” Reddick said.
That wasn’t the case two years ago. As a first-round pick in 2017, the Cardinals had already declined Reddick’s fifth-year option, so Reddick was going to be a free agent after the 2020 season − and he had little to show for it.
So five games into the 2020 season, rush linebacker Chandler Jones suffered a season-ending injury, and Reddick felt like he had nothing to lose. So he asked defensive coordinator Vance Joseph if he could move back to edge rusher, the position he played at Temple.
“I remember having a conversation with my dad,” Reddick said. “I just remember telling him that I feel like if I don’t do this, it’s either no more NFL for me, or I’ll be just a special teamer. For Arizona, if I didn’t pan out, they planned on letting me go anyway. For me, it was a simple fact of, if this was going to be my last year in the NFL, at least I get to do it the way I wanted to do it.”
Reddick panned out.
He started the last 11 games that season at rush linebacker and finished with 12.5 sacks. Either the Cardinals weren’t convinced about Reddick, or he was determined not to return, because Reddick signed a one-year deal with the Carolina Panthers for $6 million, a prove-it type of deal.
He proved it with 11 sacks last season and became a free agent again. This time, Reddick cashed in as the Eagles made him their big-money free agent signee.
But it was a different situation from his time in Arizona, or even Carolina. That was evident as soon as he signed when defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon explained to Reddick how the Eagles planned to use him. Then Gannon asked for Reddick’s reaction.
“I sat down with him and said, ‘Hey, what are you comfortable with, what are you not, what spots do you want to be in, and what don’t you?'” Gannon said. “‘Here’s how we see you fitting into the scheme. Here is our vision for you of how we’re going to deploy you and how we’re going to use you. Are you comfortable with that? Are you not?’
Reddick was comfortable, calling it “a wonderful thing.” The Eagles plan to use him in the “overhang” role, where he gets to rush the passer, ostensibly serving as a fifth defensive lineman in some formations. Reddick also might drop back into coverage, although he didn’t want to reveal too much with the season opener next Sunday in Detroit.
Obviously, those conversations weren’t taking place in Arizona, especially. Not that Reddick expected it to as a young player trying to find a role, and playing a position that he wasn’t accustomed to.
Also, in 2019, Joseph was the Cardinals’ third defensive coordinator in three seasons.
“Constantly, every year, I’m in this system for a year, then next year, new (defensive coordinator), gotta learn everything over again,” Reddick said. “New coaches coming in, they’re asking me to do a different technique than what I was doing last year. I never really got the chance to develop. And the one time I was able to be in the same defense, I switched my position.”
At Temple, Reddick was an edge rusher, going from a walk-on as a freshamn to having 9.5 sacks as a senior. The Cardinals picked him in the first round in 2017, No. 13 overall, one pick before the Eagles took defensive end Derek Barnett.
Yet Reddick had just 7.5 sacks combined in his first three seasons, and he struggled at inside linebacker.
“It’s just crazy how being in the wrong alignment (as an inside linebacker), to the slightest degree, and you can already be behind on the play,” Reddick said. “If your keys are not right, if you don’t see a pulling guard, if you don’t see a tight end slicing back across the formation, that can put you behind on the play, or that can get you out of your gap, take you out of the whole play completely.
“On the edge, it’s not really like that. On the edge, I’m only reading pass or run block … I just get to react to whatever my eyes see.”
So Reddick was asked what he learned from that experience, knowing that his career was in jeopardy before speaking up and reshaping his career.
“Never give up, man,” Reddick said. “It’s so Philadelphia when you think about it, the underdog story, being overlooked, just continuing to push through all the ups and downs. And early, I had way more downs than I had ups.”
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
