In early May, the Cardinals declined the fifth-year option on Haason Reddick‘s contract. The linebacker isn’t on their books for 2021, he’s not a big part of their plans for 2020, and he’s almost certainly on the trade block. 
A few years ago, scouts saw Reddick as a versatile prospect with the ability to play multiple spots on the front seven. But, so far, he hasn’t been consistent as an edge rusher or an inside linebacker. Last fall, they gave him a shot to start at ILB. After five weeks, they turned the job over to Joe Walker. Walker left this offseason, but the Cardinals drafted Isaiah Simmons (another versatile, jack-of-all-trades type) and added De’Vondre Campbell and Devon Kennard to the mix, leaving Reddick without a clear role.
After three years, three head coaches, and 7.5 cumulative sacks, Reddick is left with zero job security in Arizona. Last year, he finished out with just six tackles for loss and one sack and graded out as Pro Football Focus’ lowest ranked linebacker out of 63 qualified players. His stock has cooled considerably, but other teams should be willing to take a small gamble on him and his remaining $2.3MM in salary.
The Panthers would be one logical destination for him. New Carolina head coach Matt Rhule coached Reddick at Temple and saw him at his absolute best. Reddick worked his way up across four years on campus and closed out his collegiate career in 2016 with 9.5 sacks as a senior. Thanks in part to Reddick’s performance, Rhule scored new job and bigger bucks with Baylor. The Giants would also make some sense – they’ve yet to re-sign edge rusher Markus Golden and GM Dave Gettleman was supposedly high on Reddick in his draft year.
Reddick has been here before. In 2018, he was rumored to be on the block before the trade deadline, though GM Steve Keim denied shopping him. This time around, we’d wager that Keim is willing to listen.
If the eagles cared about linebackers he could be a good buy cheap option. Let him in the defensive rotation.
agreed
But they don’t.
Steeeeeeeeelers
i go to heights so if we somehow got him everyone would buy a reddick eagles jersey, he is one of the only players to go pro for football from our school, our program is really awful right now
Could make sense for the Eagles.
They have limited cap space but could afford him this year and he might be help their linebackers who already have a solid defensive front to work off
Yeah, they need linebacker help (if even only for depth) rather badly, and are hamstrung by their cap concerns. Their defensive front looks great, but they have only a handful of linebackers and midst don’t have much experience.
Reddick may be cheap enough, but he may have to be released and sign a new deal for it to fit. Not sure about exactly how much the Eagles have to offer versus how much Reddick’s cap hit is, but usually they’re around four million or so in the last year if I recall correctly. Reddick may not be a superstar option, but it would be harder to find a linebacker who is not worse than him with three years starting experience that the Eagles could afford.
Jarrad Davis and Rueben Foster are the only other non-EDGE defender linebackers who had their options declined, and both are probably going to be re-signed I think, and if not, will likely want more money. Foster likely will, despite his strange journey with domestic violence acquittals and his continued mutual contact with his accuser. Davis may not, but he doesn’t profile as much of a fit in a 4-3 defense where he’d be exposed in coverage instead of attacking the LOS as much, and it seems likely that the Lions will try to hold on to him. Reddick seems as if he’d be the best fit for the best price of the three.
When he came out of college, he looked like a future Pro Bowler. I find it difficult to pin one single aspect of his play why Reddick hasn’t panned out (admittedly I am not as familiar with his film as I should be), but I will say that the Cardinals have had massive turnover coaching wise on the defensive side of the ball since Arians left, and there really aren’t any standouts we can name on that side of the ball who were drafted in the last three or four years.
I’m not saying that this is 100% the reason for Reddick or anyone else’s lack of success, but it does at least leave the possibility that a more secure role under a more stable coaching staff could salvage some of his early draft status.