In 2021, Haason Reddick recorded 11.0 sacks and 18 quarterback hits in 16 games with the Panthers.
That was the second consecutive year he’d recorded double-digit sacks for a team that was mediocre at best, as Reddick put up 12.5 with the 2020 Cardinals.
Those seasons were good enough for Reddick to sign a three-year, $45 million contract with the Eagles as a free agent. But Reddick still feels like he doesn’t always get his due as one of the league’s top pass rushers.
That’s even after he recorded a career-high 16.0 sacks with 26 quarterback hits in 2022. He also led the league with five forced fumbles.
He was named to the Pro Bowl but was a second-team All-Pro.
“No, I don’t feel I get enough respect as a pass rusher,” Reddick said Monday. “But, I mean, everybody’s entitled to their own opinion at the end of the day. The stats, the numbers, the things that are important — they don’t lie. It’s all in front of everybody’s face. So if people want to [turn] a blind eye to it, go ahead. It is what it is.”
Why does Reddick think folks don’t respect him as much as they should?
“I don’t know, man,” Reddick said. “There’s something about playing for the Philadelphia Eagles that people do not like. I don’t know what it is.”
Some of it might have to do with Reddick’s production in his first few seasons. Though he was the 13th overall pick of the 2017 draft, he recorded just 7.5 sacks in 40 games with 20 starts from his rookie year through 2019.
But that has changed in a significant way over the last three years. If the Chiefs don’t have a good enough plan to keep Reddick away from quarterback Patrick Mahomes, he is one of the players that might wreck the game.