Haason Reddick Pacing an Eagles Sack Attack that Leads the NFL

PHILADELPHIA – Haason Reddick heard what was being said about him two years ago.

If he missed something, his agent filled him in.

The critique of Reddick’s 2020 season, when he set a career-high with 12.5 sacks for the Arizona Cardinals, was harsh.

Any questions any team had about him, however, have been answered, not once but twice now.

The Eagles' pass rusher is a big part of the team’s sack attack, a total that leads the league with 49.

He followed up his 12.5 sack season two years ago with 11 in Carolina last year and now sits at 10 this year with four games left to play.

Reddick talked at his locker on Wednesday about the criticism he heard.

It really started with the Cardinals, the team that drafted him but declined to pick up his fifth-year option.

“Was it a one-year thing?" said Reddick recounting what he heard being said about his 12.5-sack output. "People were worrying about whether it was the scheme that made me, all this stuff; I heard it. Three different years, three different teams, three different DCs, three different schemes, and I’ve been able to be successful in each one.

“Just the testament to where I will never take anything away from the people who have been around me, coaches, players, but honestly there’s a lot of hard work that goes into it, determination, and just trying to be the best I can be.”

This is what the great ones have – the desire to be great because many have the ability but not that unquenchable thirst to be great.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts has it.

A lot of players in the Eagles locker room do, too, including everyone along an Eagles defensive line that has been eating this season.

Last year, they were starving, with just 29 sacks in 17 games, which was second from the bottom of the league.

They are just the fifth team in franchise history to post back-to-back games with six or more sacks and they have four different players with at least six sacks: Reddick (10), Brandon Graham (8.5), Javon Hargrave (7.5), and Fletcher Cox (6).

“Obviously, Haason is a great pass rusher, and so that's why we wanted to bring him here,” said head coach Nick Sirianni. “He has 10, so there (are) 10 additional ones right there. But it's a lot of production by a lot of different guys. It's what's pretty impressive about it.”

The rotation employed by defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, defensive line coach Tracy Rocker, and defensive ends/outside linebackers coach Jeremiah Washburn has been keeping players fresh, and that, too, has helped the sacks rise.

“The fact that they can stay fresh, and the numbers, the plays that they're getting, they can be -people don't sub offensive linemen, right, it's not like hey, the offensive linemen played 37 percent of the plays,” said Sirianni, “but the teams that can sub the defensive linemen, that's a huge advantage.

"But you don't sub unless you have the guys that you really believe in that can do it, and we definitely do have that. A lot of credit for our sack numbers going up, deservedly so, should go to Haason, but it's a great unit in whole.”

Reddick gives a lot of credit to the two position coaches – Washburn and Rocker.

“We’re out there with them every day, we’re working on pass rush with them every day, and the things we do within our drills

“The way they prepare us. The way Wash breaks it down. He used to be an offensive line coach, but the way he breaks it down from an offensive standpoint and gives it to us. Then T-Rock, with the motivation and the energy he has, they’re like peanut butter and jelly and we’re like the bread. We make it all work.”

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.

Add us as a preferred source on Google