Resolution or forced compliance?

Headline – “Jets optimistic about Haason Reddick resolution; summer extension unlikely.” 

This was from an aggregation site based on published reports.

This narrative is a little confusing.

What is a summer resolution without an extension?

Perhaps some kind of incentives could be added to the deal.

But is that going to truly make Reddick happy?

He clearly looks at recently-inked contracts for defensive ends like Jacksonville’s Josh Allen and the New York Giants Brian Burns, averaging in the $28 million-a-year range, and thinks he deserves something like that, the going rate if you will.

So if there is no extension like this, how is Reddick going to be happy?

He’s 29, so know his window for getting another big deal is closing.

Burns and Allen are in their middle 20s and just got their second contract, which is often the largest for NFL players. Reddick already got a second deal, a 3-year, $45 million contract from Philadelphia, a contract entering its last year.

When I read the headline that the Jets are “optimistic about Haason Reddick resolution,” the first thing to come to mind is the fact that he’s owed $14.25 million on that deal he got from the Eagles, so there is no way he’s going to flush that money down the toilet and not report.

On top of not wanting to lose $14.25 million which is still darn good money, even if it’s not Burns and Allen money, he also probably has no interest in the massive fines you get each day you hold out from training camp.

So yeah, there will likely be a “resolution” by the summer, either Reddick reports, or he risks losing a lot of money.

So perhaps that is the resolution that is being referred to.

But if that is the resolution, you know he’s going to be pissed.

This situation is very unusual, where a team acquires another team’s contract dispute without a resolution.

When the Giants acquired Burns from Carolina, and the Washington Commanders traded for defensive end Montez Sweat, new long-term deals were essentially agreed to before the trades were consummated.

That is why in these scenarios, teams allow contract talks, between the player’s agent, and a potential trade partner, before the trade is made.

But it seems there was no promise of an extension before Reddick was traded to the Jets.

Now, based on a few different published reports, the Reddick camp seemed to infer that the player was okay playing this year under his current deal, and would participate in the Jets’ off-season program.

Clearly something changed. 

Looks like perhaps a bait-and-switch situation from the player’s camp.

And after the Jets traded defensive end John Franklin-Myers to Denver, some thought that created more leverage for Reddick, though JFM is a different kind of player than Reddick, and would move all over the line. Reddick is mainly an edge-rusher, and Franklin-Myers is a tweener.

But if a promise was made by the Reddick camp about honoring his current deal and attending the team’s off-season program, it should not have mattered that the team traded Franklin-Myers.

Another challenge Reddick could face in squeezing an extension out of the Jets is the organization seems to be in belt-tightening mode this off-season, perhaps driven by inflation. They eliminated their assistant GM position and let go of three individuals from their sports science/conditioning department.

So they might not be in the financial mood right now to give Reddick a monster extension.

And let’s not forget, they also need to soon pay their bumper crop from the 2022 draft – Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson and Breece Hall. So they need to keep some reserves in tow for that.

But to me, and I could be wrong, this idea of a summer resolution, might be more a case of forced compliance, if the player wants his $14.25 million, which isn’t exactly chump change.

June 20, 2024

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