Haason Reddick's Late Charge for Defensive Player of the Year
PHILADELPHIA – There are two ways to view Haason Reddick’s candidacy for Defensive Player of the Year.
First, there are the individual numbers. He has 16 sacks in 16 games. After not having any sacks in his first two games with the Eagles this season, he has had eight in the last five.
Reddick is also only one of three players who have 16-plus sacks, five-plus forced fumbles, and three-plus fumble recoveries since 2000, per CBS Sports’ Jeff Kerr. The other two with such gaudy numbers were Chandler Jones (2019) and T.J. Watt (2021).
Second, there is the team player Reddick is, something his defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, pointed out on Thursday.
“What are his sack numbers?” Gannons asked.
Informed they were 16, he said: “He’s up there. He’s one of the best players in the NFL, I’d say that. If I didn’t drop him so much, he’d probably have 25.”
Gannon was joking, poking fun at anyone who thought it would be a bad idea to play Reddick in coverage rather than have him strictly rush the passer. To be clear, Reddick rushes on most downs, but he has dropped into coverage occasionally.
“That’s not a shot at you,” the DC said to reporters. “That’s a kudos in Haason’s hat to do whatever we need to do. He will do whatever we ask him to do to win the game. That’s what you talk about. That’s what you want out of your elite defenders is to be team first and put themselves second behind the team and that’s what he does.”
Reddick certainly does that.
There's a third part about him that should drive some DPOY conversation: he is a key piece on a defensive line that has rewritten the team record for sacks and, with the Eagles sitting at 68 heading into Sunday’s regular-season finale against the New York Giants (4:25 p.m./CBS), they are just four away from tying the all-time league record sacks set by the Richard Dent-led 1984 Chicago Bears.
“You know the stats are all fine and well and I'm happy to be having the year that I'm having, but when we're this close and we're fighting for something so important that's not the thing on the front of my mind,” he said.
“Right now I'm worried about being the best I can be and helping my team win this next game so that we can get that No. 1 seed and lock it up at the end of the day so I'm not really focusing on the stats like that. Just more so focusing on what I can do to help the team win."
Reddick was asked specifically about the DPOY award, something that San Francisco’s Nick Bosa is the odds-on favorite to win.
“I don’t know how to really answer that,” he said. “I’m active on Twitter, I’m on social media like anybody else is and I see the things being said. I just keep working. That’s all I can do because at the end of the day what I want what I believe isn’t the case.
“I can’t go out there and decide that award for myself. There are factors that have to play a part. Whether they want to show a blind eye to what I’ve been doing or if they want to give recognition that’s up to them. The people who know, they know. I’m just going to continue to try to play the best football I can and at the end of the day that’s all that matters to me.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
