Vikings Audition LB Kwon Alexander
Injuries have become a consistent problem for Kwon Alexander, who has done well to find opportunities despite a host of setbacks. The veteran linebacker is attempting another comeback, this time from an Achilles tear that ended his season with the Steelers.
The Falcons brought in Alexander for a recent workout, and NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero indicates the Vikings did the same. Alexander has now been with five NFL teams, most recently the Steelers in 2023, during a nine-year career. He landed gigs in late July — with the Jets and Steelers — over the past two years, but thanks to the Achilles injury suffered in November, that timetable understandably changed in 2024.
Alexander, 30, played in nine Pittsburgh games last season while making two starts before going down in a Packers matchup November 12. Alexander has continually made it back from injury issues. This dates back to a 2018 ACL tear while with the Buccaneers. Alexander then sustained a torn pec during his first season on a lucrative 49ers contract. Last year’s Achilles tear also was not Alexander’s first as a pro, with the veteran defender going down with the same injury late in the 2020 season while with the Saints.
Considering Alexander’s age and injury past, it is impressive he has continued to resurface. Last season, the former Bucs standout made 41 tackles (five for loss) and intercepted a pass for a Steelers team that encountered health issues at linebacker. Alexander started 12 games for Robert Saleh‘s top-five defense in 2022, and while he played 17 games, the former fourth-round pick was a part-time player (49% usage rate) alongside standouts C.J. Mosley and Quincy Williams.
For his career, Alexander has made 88 starts. The Vikings did work on their defensive second level this offseason, adding Minneapolis-area native Blake Cashman in free agency and hybrid player Andrew Van Ginkel. The team won bidding wars for both. Minnesota has also seen Ivan Pace go from 2023 UDFA to starter at the position. Kamu Grugier-Hill and 2022 third-rounder Brian Asamoah are in place behind Cashman and Pace, though neither has played a defensive snap thus far this season.
If healthy, Alexander would provide second-level depth to a team. But he is certainly running out of chances due to the growing list of setbacks sustained during a lengthy career.
Dolphins To Place Tua Tagovailoa On IR
Tua Tagovailoa is not planning to reconsider retirement, but the Dolphins are planning to give their starting quarterback plenty of time to recover from the latest concussion he sustained.
Miami is placing Tagovailoa on IR, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo report. With Miami’s bye occurring during this window, the earliest the fifth-year QB can return will be Week 8. This is not especially surprising, but it does represent a change from how the Dolphins handled their quarterback during his concussion-marred 2022 season.
[RELATED: Tagovailoa To Visit Neurologists, Not Planning To Retire]
The Dolphins did not use IR during Tagovailoa’s concerning ’22 slate, which featured two confirmed concussions and most likely three head injuries. Tua rehabbed on Miami’s active roster that year, though the team did shut him down after his Week 16 injury. The player who spent most of the time replacing Tagovailoa at QB that season — former seventh-round pick Skylar Thompson — is now in position to start for the Dolphins. The team, though, did bring in Tyler Huntley this week.
This plan certainly changes the equation for the Dolphins, who had seen Tagovailoa submit a quality 2023 season — a 17-game campaign devoid of concussion recurrences — and earn a four-year, $212.4MM extension this offseason. Tagovailoa received $93.2MM guaranteed at signing and is protected in the event he is not cleared from his latest head injury. Tua will need to return to action, however, if cleared in order to collect the bulk of the money from his lucrative extension.
A collision with Bills safety Damar Hamlin brought instant concerns from Dolphins and Bills players, and Miami confirmed its fifth-year starter sustained a concussion soon after. This sequence came just less than two years after the handling of a potential Tua concussion — one the team did not end up confirming, leading to an immediate return in a Week 3 win over the Bills — changed the NFL’s protocol. Players regularly return from concussions soon after the injuries, even with the enhanced protocols, but the Dolphins have their passer’s past and future to consider. This is a significant step, as it will undoubtedly have a major impact on the team’s 2024 season.
Tagovailoa has not been on IR since 2021, when a rib injury led him out of the mix. He did miss five regular-season games and the team’s wild-card tilt in 2022. (Tua also suffered a concussion at Alabama.) In addition to the initial review of the Dolphins’ handling of Tua’s injury against the Bills in September 2022, the team was the subject of another probe due to leaving Tagovailoa in a Packers matchup in which he sustained another concussion. Tua did not report symptoms until the following day, and the second investigation soon cleared the Dolphins. But they are back in familiar territory nearly two years later.
Thompson, 27, saw action in 2022 due to Teddy Bridgewater suffering multiple injuries — including a concussion — as well. He completed just 57.1% of his regular-season passes — at a mere 5.1 yards per attempt — but gave the favored Bills a scare in the wild-card round. Thompson beat out 2023 Tua backup Mike White this summer and will be given the first chance to lead an explosive Dolphins offense.
Huntley has far more experience, starting nine games in place of Lamar Jackson from 2021-23. Huntley, however, did not draw extensive free agency interest. The Browns ended up cutting the four-year Ravens backup, who made his way back to Baltimore — on a practice squad deal — before the season. Because the Dolphins signed Huntley off the Ravens’ P-squad, he must remain on Miami’s active roster for at least three weeks. This could set up a QB competition, but for now, it will be Thompson at the controls.
Big picture-wise, the Dolphins’ immediate QB plans are not especially important. The team has Tagovailoa signed through 2028, and his recovery will be monitored closely. The left-hander’s eventual reinsertion into Miami’s starting lineup will prompt natural outside concerns about his future, and Tua did consider retirement following that 2022 season. But he secured a big-ticket extension after staying healthy in 2023. The Dolphins are planning to have their starter back at some point, and it will be interesting to see when he is cleared from this latest concerning injury.
Chiefs To Bring Back Kareem Hunt
Although the Chiefs’ first partnership with Kareem Hunt ended badly, the former rushing champion resurfaced on Kansas City’s radar in light of Isiah Pacheco‘s injury. The Chiefs are expected to move fast here.
Hunt is on track to return to the Chiefs, according to veteran reporter Jordan Schultz. Both Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Helaire are out of the picture for the Chiefs, who exited Sunday’s Week 2 escape with rookie UDFA Carson Steele and recently added passing-down back Samaje Perine rounding out their RB room.
This will be a practice squad agreement, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero tweets. The Cowboys made this move with Dalvin Cook recently. Hunt had resided in free agency since his latest Browns contract expired. After the Browns brought Hunt back when Nick Chubb went down in Week 2 of last year, the Chiefs will take the same route due to the Pacheco development.
While Chiefs fans may remember Hunt as a burgeoning top-tier running back, he has not displayed that form in a while. He finished last season with a 3.0-yard average per carry (on 135 totes) while teaming with Jerome Ford to replace Chubb. Hunt’s minus-101 rushing yards over expected doubled as the NFL’s third-worst number (per Next Gen Stats) last season.
The two-year Chiefs starter had operated effectively as a Chubb complementary piece in Cleveland, having sought a more lucrative contract in 2022. Hunt, 29, had requested a trade that year but did not end up being moved. The Browns had planned to move on in 2023, only to see Chubb’s injury change the team’s thinking. Despite Chubb landing on the reserve/PUP list due to the severe knee injury he sustained last September, the Browns did not bring Hunt back.
Hunt won the 2017 rushing title as a rookie, and the former third-round pick was on his way to a better 2018 season before video surfaced of him pushing a 19-year-old woman to the ground and kicking her while she was on the floor. This incident occurred during the 2018 offseason at a Cleveland hotel. The Chiefs kept Hunt rostered months after the incident occurred, but video surfacing prompted the team to act. At the time, the Chiefs had indicated Hunt lied to them regarding the events depicted in the video.
Hunt went unclaimed on waivers, but ex-Chiefs GM John Dorsey (then in place as Browns GM) gave him a second chance in free agency in 2019. The Browns extended Hunt — who received an eight-game suspension — on a two-year, $12MM deal in 2020. Hunt signed the extension after Dorsey’s ouster and played four seasons under the Andrew Berry–Kevin Stefanski pairing.
Having accumulated 1,202 scrimmage yards in just 11 games in 2018, Hunt was on course for a second Pro Bowl at the time he was waived. He had already scored 14 touchdowns for a historically explosive Chiefs offense, one that employed Tyreek Hill and a prime version of Travis Kelce. The Chiefs narrowly missed Super Bowl LIII that season but have since won three championships with low-cost RB situations. Hunt may well have been on an extension track — for a team that has become known for being quite lenient when it comes to off-field trouble — in Kansas City, but he settled into a backup role in Cleveland and saw his trajectory change.
Although Hunt played a key role in the Browns’ 2020 playoff return by compiling 1,145 yards from scrimmage and working as the team’s passing-down option, he has not eclipsed 700 scrimmage yards in a season since. Injury trouble intervened in 2021, and he averaged just 3.8 yards per handoff during a disappointing 2022 season. While last year brought a career-low YPC number, Hunt still rushed for nine touchdowns to help the Browns to the playoffs despite Chubb, Deshaun Watson and both starting tackles going down.
The same Chiefs power structure is in place from the time Hunt was cut, though GM Brett Veach was not yet in charge when the Toledo alum was drafted in 2017. Hunt will likely move to Kansas City’s active roster soon, with Steele fumbling Sunday and Perine profiling as more change-of-pace back and pass catcher than workhorse. A committee should be expected here.
Edwards-Helaire is out of the mix on the reserve/non-football illness list. Pacheco suffered a fractured fibula against the Bengals and is heading to IR. While Pacheco is not expected to miss the season, the third-year back will miss much of it. Hunt will be asked to help the Chiefs get by in the meantime.
AFC North Notes: Fields, Steelers, Wilson, Taylor-Britt, Bengals, Browns, Ravens
Another Justin Fields start is likely on tap for the Steelers, who are 2-0 with the fourth-year passer at the controls. Russell Wilson is not scheduled to log a full practice Wednesday, and Mike Tomlin said (via ESPN.com’s Brooke Pryor) the team is “readying a plan that features Justin.”
The Steelers have not exactly been prolific on offense with Fields, scoring all of 31 points in two games. But the trade acquisition — who entered the offseason as the clear backup — has gained enough ground on Wilson it is believed to have put the starting job in question. The 25-year-old passer has completed 69.8% of his passes, albeit at just 6.3 yards per attempt, but has managed two pilot Pittsburgh to two wins despite questions about the team’s pass-catching group after the much-discussed Brandon Aiyuk trade fell through.
Fields helping the Steelers to a win over the Broncos boosted his case, and Wilson may be running out of time due to a calf issue sidelining him — save for some preseason time — since the start of training camp. A report before that Denver matchup suggested Wilson would not lose the job he won due to injury, but it may well be up in the air now.
Here is the latest from the AFC North:
- Stepping into the No. 1 cornerback role to start his third season, Cam Taylor-Britt pulled down a spectacular one-handed interception of Patrick Mahomes in the Bengals‘ Week 2 loss. With the Bengals expecting a big year from Taylor-Britt, The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. notes this would put the former second-round pick on the extension radar come 2025 (subscription required). Taylor-Britt will be eligible for a second contract next year, and while the Bengals are poised for a second round of Ja’Marr Chase negotiations in 2025, a quality Taylor-Britt showing this year would leave them an easier extension to complete.
- Attempting to move from a decorated wrestling career to the Bills, Gable Steveson did not turn that bid into a spot on Buffalo’s active roster or practice squad. The former Olympic gold medalist is not shutting down football aspirations, with NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo noting he worked out for the Ravens this week. The 24-year-old wrestling convert competed as a defensive lineman in Buffalo, with Bills preseason games doubling as Steveson’s first football games at any level.
- The Browns and Bears completed a trade for defensive tackle Chris Williams just before the season. The pick-swap deal involved the Bears sending the Browns a 2025 sixth-round pick (originally from the Vikings) for Williams and a conditional 2025 seventh-rounder, Cards Wire’s Howard Balzer notes. The sixth that went to Cleveland was originally a Miami selection.
Minor NFL Transactions: 9/17/24
Here are Tuesday’s minor moves:
Carolina Panthers
- Signed from practice squad: TE Feleipe Franks
- Released: TE Jordan Matthews
- Waived: OLB Eku Leota
Cincinnati Bengals
- Waived: DE K.J. Henry
Denver Broncos
- Removed from IR via injury settlement: DL Ronnie Perkins
Pittsburgh Steelers
- Placed on IR: LB Tyler Matakevich
A transaction mainstay since being included in the 2017 trade that brought Ronald Darby to Philadelphia from Buffalo, Matthews has since moved to tight end and been with the Panthers since 2023. Matthews later made it back to Philly and has been with five NFL teams since being a 2014 second-round pick. He started one game for the TE-depleted Panthers this season. Franks is a converted quarterback who has played in Carolina’s first two games as a gameday elevation. A 2023 Panthers UDFA, Leota logged a 2024 start and recorded a sack. But the second-year player is now on the wire.
Colts Place DT DeForest Buckner On IR
DeForest Buckner sustained an ankle injury against the Packers, and the Colts will not have their top defensive lineman available for a while. Buckner will head to IR.
This marks a change of pace for the durable defensive tackle, who entered this season having missed all of two games since his 2016 rookie season. A Monday report from NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport indicated X-rays revealed Buckner suffered a sprained ankle that was not considered serious, and while the Pro Bowler’s season is not in jeopardy, he is out for at least four games.
An MRI affected this situation, Rapoport adds. The Colts signed defensive end Genard Avery to their active roster and added D-tackle Adam Gotsis to the practice squad. Indianapolis also signed cornerback Gregory Junior and defensive end Titus Leo to the practice squad, releasing D-tackle McTelvin Agim and corner Ameer Speed from the P-squad.
Buckner, 30, has rewarded the Colts for the trade they made with the 49ers four years ago. As San Francisco determined second contracts for both Buckner and Arik Armstead were not viable, the team dealt the former to Indianapolis for a 2020 first-round pick. While the 49ers did not do well to replace Buckner with that choice (Javon Kinlaw), the Colts enjoyed consistent production from the 2016 first-round pick. Buckner has made three Pro Bowls as a Colt, ascending to first-team All-Pro status in 2020 as well.
The Colts have seen Buckner spearhead their pass rush, with UFA addition Samson Ebukam and recent draftees Kwity Paye and Dayo Odeyingbo coming along to help the cause last season. Buckner has 1.5 sacks this year, though the Colts are 0-2. Replacing the ninth-year standout will be a tall order, as the team has not needed to play without him much. Buckner played through a UCL tear in his left elbow in 2022 and signed an extension (two years, $46MM, $43.25MM guaranteed) this offseason.
Indy re-signed nose tackle Grover Stewart and hybrid D-lineman Tyquan Lewis this offseason. The team also re-signed Taven Bryan and added former Dolphins DT Raekwon Davis. Buckner’s presence, however, has helped the team’s pass rush on the whole. With Ebukam out with a torn Achilles, the Colts look set for an uphill battle. They can activate Buckner in Week 7.
Giants Work Out Four Kickers, To Add Greg Joseph Off Lions’ Practice Squad
Graham Gano‘s injury changed the Giants’ gameday procedure, costing them dearly in a narrow loss to the Commanders. After not attempting any extra points once Gano went down, the Giants will make their expected addition.
With Gano set to miss at least four games, New York worked out four kickers. The team, however, will take another course. The Giants are signing Greg Joseph off the Lions’ practice squad, per his agency. The team must keep Joseph on its 53-man roster for at least three weeks due to poaching him off another team’s P-squad. Gano is now on IR, per a Giants announcement.
The Giants initially attempted a free agency path here, with NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo indicating the team worked out Zane Gonzalez, Randy Bullock, Riley Patterson and Tanner Brown. Instead, it will be Joseph, who will head to team No. 3 this year. Joseph signed with the Packers early this offseason but did not make their 53-man roster, joining the Lions’ practice squad as Jake Bates insurance. But an immediate opportunity will come his way in New York.
Joseph, 30, spent the past three seasons as the Vikings’ kicker. He drilled a 61-yard game-winning field goal to beat the Giants in Week 16 of the 2022 season. Like Gano, who made a 63-yarder to beat the Giants as a Panther in 2018, Joseph will make his way to the NFC’s New York franchise.
Joseph made 86.8% of his field goals in 2021 but did not clear the 80% barrier in either of the past two seasons. He made 80% of his tries last season, missing three from between 40 and 49 yards, and saw the Vikings take a different route this year.
As for Gano, this is the second time he has landed on IR in as many seasons. Gano has suffered two injuries since the Giants gave him a three-year, $16.5MM extension ($11.34MM guaranteed) in September 2023. Gano, 37, missed nine games last season. The Giants will hope to have their regular specialist back from his hamstring injury this season, but they will need to use an IR activation to make that happen.
Bullock served as the Giants’ Gano replacement in six games last season, while Patterson could not secure a spot as the Commanders’ kicker in the preseason. (Gonzalez has not kicked since the 2021 season.) The Commanders, who settled on Austin Seibert as their latest kicker, became the first NFL team to win a game despite scoring zero touchdowns to their opponent’s three.
Bengals To Sign DL Lawrence Guy
Lawrence Guy‘s effort to return to the NFL included workouts with two AFC North teams. After auditioning for the Ravens — one of his former squads — Guy participated in a Bengals showcase today. The latter effort will produce a deal.
The Bengals are signing Guy to their 53-man roster, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero tweets. This will put Guy on a path toward a 13th NFL season, giving Cincinnati some experience as it attempts to crawl out of another 0-2 hole. Guy’s presence will undoubtedly be aimed at helping against the run, where the Bengals rank 26th.
Entering the NFL as a seventh-round Packers pick, Guy has now been in the league for 14 seasons. Though, he did not see any action as a rookie. Guy, 34, still went on to become a mainstay in Baltimore and New England. The Ravens met with their former D-line contributor a few weeks back but did not sign him. This opened the door for Guy to join a sixth NFL team.
This signing comes shortly after both Bengals starting D-tackles — B.J. Hill and Sheldon Rankins — sustained hamstring injuries against the Chiefs. Cincinnati also let high-end nose tackle D.J. Reader walk in free agency; Reader joined the Lions, making his debut with his new team in Week 2. The Bengals worked out both Guy and Albert Huggins today, per Pelissero, but will add the more experienced piece.
Guy lasted seven seasons in New England, starting for the team’s Super Bowl LII and LIII teams and remaining in place as a central Pats cog through Bill Belichick‘s final season. Although de facto GM Eliot Wolf valued many Belichick pieces considerably well this offseason via re-signings and extensions, Guy joined Adrian Phillips as mid-February cap casualties. The 315-pound D-lineman had signed two four-year deals with the Patriots, being a core Belichick player but one deemed expendable as Jerod Mayo took the reins.
The Pats gave Guy 102 starts from 2017-23. Not known as a pressure artist inside, Guy did accumulate 10.5 regular-season sacks as a Patriot and dropped Blake Bortles in New England’s comeback win over Jacksonville in the 2017 AFC championship game. Guy spent two-plus years in Baltimore prior to that 2017 New England signing, and he will return to the AFC North to help a Bengals team in need.
No IR moves involving Hill or Rankins have come to pass yet, but the Bengals did waive defensive end K.J. Henry from their active roster to clear a spot for Guy, ProFootballNetwork.com’s Jay Morrison tweets. Cincy had claimed Henry, a 2023 fifth-round pick, off waivers from Washington. Rather than go through with the increasingly common practice squad ramp-up route, the Bengals intend to put Guy to work immediately as they attempt their latest turnaround effort.
Dak Prescott Was Likely To Up Price If Cowboys Negotiated In-Season
The Cowboys completed a rare instance of an extension being finalized the morning of Week 1 Sunday. While the other teams who completed pre-Week 1 extensions hammered them out in the days leading up to their respective openers, the Cowboys were still negotiating the morning of their Browns matchup.
A Saturday report suggested a small chance existed the Cowboys could come to terms with their ninth-year quarterback, but they ended up doing so just before noon CT — around four hours before their Browns tilt. As the Cowboys and Dak’s agent negotiated before COO Stephen Jones left for Cleveland, ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano indicates the team was motivated by the soft deadline Week 1 brought.
Prescott, 30, had said he was OK continuing talks into the season; though, he seemed less thrilled about the prospect when he broached it again late last month. Had Prescott begun a contract year, he was likely to keep upping his price as free agency would have loomed closer and closer as the season progressed, per Graziano. Considering where the Cowboys ended up, it is understandable they were leery of where the numbers could go if their staredown with the QB dragged into the fall.
These negotiations ended with Prescott becoming the NFL’s first $60MM-per-year player, representing remarkable growth on a market that stood at $30MM (Matt Ryan‘s second Falcons extension) barely six years ago. Dak’s $60MM AAV checks in $5MM north of where the market’s ceiling previously resided, but the likes of Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love did not possess the leverage Prescott did.
The Cowboys again bent on term length (four years), as they did for Prescott in 2021 and CeeDee Lamb this year, and again gave their quarterback no-trade and no-tag clauses. Not that a no-tag clause would have mattered much, as no player has received a third tag in nearly 20 years — since the 2006 CBA made doing so punitive — but the Cowboys showed the results of negotiating without leverage.
Still, they were able to keep Prescott away from free agency. Guaranteed money brought the final stage of these talks, Graziano adds, and Dak indeed secured more in guarantees than Deshaun Watson did on a five-year deal. That said, Watson — for now, at least — is tied to $230MM fully guaranteed; Prescott’s $231MM number represents the total guarantee. Though, the Cowboys will have a difficult time escaping this contract due to the above-referenced clauses and the financial penalties that come via the guarantee structure.
Dallas gave Prescott $129MM guaranteed at signing. That is not a top-market number, as it checks in seventh among QBs. But Prescott, as should be expected, secured a player-friendly cash flow. His 2024 and 2025 base salaries are guaranteed at signing, and Graziano adds the $40MM 2026 base salary shifts from guaranteed for injury to a full guarantee in March 2025. That same structure applies for Prescott’s $45MM 2027 base, which locks in as of March 2026. Prescott is due $55MM in 2028 base salary; $17MM of that amount will become fully guaranteed in March 2027. Dak’s one-, two-, three- and four-year cash flows lead the NFL, SI.com’s Andrew Brandt tweets.
No-tag and no-trade clauses being present in Prescott’s 2021 extension (4/160), coupled with his previous 2024 cap number ($55.13MM) and potential 2025 dead money penalty if not extended by March ($40.13MM), made it a lock he would secure whopping terms from the Cowboys if he agreed to avoid testing free agency.
This extension includes four void years, with the Cowboys having the option of restructuring the deal down the road as well, but still includes a high 2024 cap number. Dak’s extension dropped his cap hit by less than $11MM, with the new ’24 number settling at $44.61MM. With the Browns restructuring Watson’s deal a second time, the Rams reworking Matthew Stafford‘s contract and the Cowboys paying Prescott, Kyler Murray‘s $49.12MM leads all players and represents the highest single-player cap hit in NFL history.
This nixes what would have been a historic free agency sweepstakes and ties Prescott to the Cowboys through 2028. This will put Dak in line to become the longest-tenured QB1 in team history, surpassing Troy Aikman‘s 12-season run.
Jets Still In Communication With Haason Reddick; Latest On Trade Prospect
The Jets continue to wait on Haason Reddick, but no signs this holdout will end soon are present. Reddick’s grudge against his new team persists, even as his fines have surpassed $5MM.
Although Robert Saleh has said he has not spoken to Reddick since training camp began, SNY’s Connor Hughes does confirm the edge rusher’s agent remains in talks with GM Joe Douglas. Seemingly representing progress, Hughes does well to ensure that is not the case by confirming both sides are still entrenched in their summer stances on this matter. A weekend report indeed indicated Reddick is “willing to die on this sword.”, and Hughes reported late last month some believe the former Cardinals, Panthers and Eagles starter is geared up to skip the season.
[RELATED: Jets GM Addresses Reddick’s Holdout]
Not wanting to negotiate an extension for a player who has not reported, the Jets were also not believed to be overly interested in paying Reddick due to his age (30 this month). Contract sweeteners emerged as a potential solution in this messy situation, but Reddick is believed to essentially view the Jets as having reneged on their word by refusing to revisit extension talks after a low-ball offer emerged before the trade was finalized. Hence, the standoff.
Teams around the league are obviously monitoring this situation, and ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler adds some view a trade as the escape route the Jets will eventually take. When Reddick requested a trade during the preseason, the Jets shot down the notion they would comply. While some anonymous execs may predict this will be how the saga ends in New York, the Jets would take a loss here due to being unlikely to recoup whey they gave up — a 2026 conditional third-rounder — in the March deal with the Eagles.
A team interested in trading for Reddick would almost definitely need to have a deal ready. Holdouts preceding trades have produced delayed resolutions, as the cases of Trent Williams and Duane Brown remind. Washington traded Williams to San Francisco in 2020, after he sat out the 2019 season, and the decorated tackle played out his existing contract before cashing in as a 2021 free agent. Brown held out in 2017, and the Texans traded him to the Seahawks. The tackle did not sign a Seattle extension until the 2018 offseason.
This type of conclusion may work for Matt Judon and the Falcons, but Reddick appears intent on cashing in. He has yet to earn a top-market edge rusher salary, having seen the Panthers provide a prove-it deal in 2021 — after the Cardinals used him as an off-ball linebacker for multiple seasons — and the Eagles hand over a three-year, $45MM pact.
Reddick remains attached to that pact. The former first-rounder will be unlikely to fetch true top-market money due to age and perhaps this holdout, but with 51.5 sacks since 2020 (the fourth-most this decade), he would remain a coveted commodity in a second 2024 trade.
Residing on the Jets’ reserve/did not report list, Reddick has seen his 2024 salary ($14.25MM) become nonguaranteed due to not being on an active roster when vested veterans’ salaries locked in last weekend. Reddick will lose $791K for each game missed, but The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt notes the Jets will not gain cap space for Reddick missed games. They are also missing out on quality production, but with Reddick not practicing with the team, it is debatable how well he would fare if immediately inserted into Saleh’s system.