NFL News

Reddick Ends Holdout, Agrees to Deal with Jets – Better late than never, the saga is finally over. Haason Reddick’s holdout comes to an end.

Almost seven months after his trade from his hometown team, the Philadelphia Eagles, the elite pass rusher has agreed to a reworked contract with the New York Jets, ending a contentious stalemate with his new team, NFL Network Senior Insider Ian Rapoport reported Sunday morning.

The final outcome for Reddick is an adjusted short-term deal, not the long-term contract as he had been looking for. Rapoport reported Reddick and his new representation will continue to work on a multi-year solution.

“Our goal is to continue to work towards a long-term extension with the Jets,” agent Drew Rosenhaus, who was hired by Reddick on Monday after the pass rusher was let go by his previous agency, told Rapoport.

Reddick will report to the Jets facilities on Monday morning following their Sunday Night Football showdown against Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

This concludes one of the most peculiar holdouts in recent memory, not with a lot of hoopla or fanfare, but with a whimper.

The Jets acquired Reddick via trade from the Eagles on March 29. The now 30-year-old linebacker was coming off back-to-back Pro Bowl campaigns and his fourth consecutive season with at least 11 sacks. In the final year of his deal in 2024, he was scheduled to earn $14.5 million, just barely cracking the top 20 for pass rushers in terms of average annual value.

After Reddick fell to appear for mandatory minicamp in June and then skipped the start of training camp in July in search of a long-term extension with the franchise, he requested a trade on August 12. Jets general manager Joe Douglas, who had given up a valuable 2026 conditional third-round pick for Reddick’s services, refused to move on from the disgruntled defensive end.

The standoff dragged on into the season. Despite pleas from then-coach Robert Saleh and owner Woody Johnson and then a season-ending injury to pass rusher Jermaine Johnson II, Reddick stood his ground, never showing up to the Jets’ facility, while creating a deep hole in his wallet, racking up millions in fines.

Just 24 hours after Rapoport reported that Reddick said thanks, but no thanks to a reworked one-year deal in the midst of his holdout that would have made him whole, the pass rusher’s agency, CAA, dropped him. In stepped super agents Rosenhaus and Ryan Matha, who got the ball rolling, talking with the Jets front office this week and were granted permission by New York to reach out to teams to gauge trade interest.

In the end, the two parties came to an agreement which is a temporary bandage and that likely satisfies few. Reddick did not get the long-term extension he desired, and the Jets lost seven games of production from a critical piece they were building their defense around.

Reddick will join a Jets team that is in major turmoil. The 2-4 team, in the past two weeks, have said goodbye to their head coach, traded for an All-Pro caliber wide receiver, reportedly put one of their own wideouts on the trade block and now ended the NFL’s final holdout with one of its best pass rushers.

The Jets, led by Johnson, Douglas and now interim coach Jeff Ulbrich, are all in on breaking American sports’ longest playoff drought at 14 years this season, and bringing Reddick back into the fold is a major part of that.

Reddick should slide in right away as a starter across from Will McDonald IV on the defensive line and help anchor a front seven led by C.J. Mosley and Quinnen Williams. Through six games, the Jets defensive unite ranks seventh in points allowed, second in total yards allowed and are top-six in sacks (20) and QB pressure percentage (28.9).

The welcomed addition of the two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher can only help in those categories, starting in Week 8 against the New England Patriots.

And…

Steelers Plan to Start Wilson Over Fields on Sunday – The Pittsburgh Steelers are going to let ‘Russ Cook’. Six games and four wins into the season, Pittsburgh is making a change at the most important position in all of sports, quarterback.

The Steelers are planning to start Russell Wilson on Sunday night against the New York Jets over Justin Fields, who had started each of Pittsburgh’s previous games this season, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Saturday.

NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported the impending switch as early as Tuesday, however, coach Mike Tomlin was still on the fence and said he still had a decision to make. Pittsburgh is coming to the conclusion that was reported, going with a now-healthy Wilson, coming off a calf injury, though it is still mind boggling for many.

Rapoport went on to say that while Wilson is expected to play the lions share of the snaps as Sunday’s starter, Fields is also expected to play end some capacity.

There will be some history made with the decision. The move will mark the first time in the Super Bowl era that a healthy starting quarterback has led his team to a 4-2 record or better and has not started his team’s seventh game, according to NFL Research.

Although Fields has not knocked anyone’s socks off, the former Chicago Bears first-round pick out of Ohio State University, has become a favorite of his teammates, thrown five touchdowns to just one interception and also used his legs and rushed for five scores, which is tied for fifth in the NFL. Pittsburgh is 26th in total offense and the hope is Wilson can light a fire under the group, particularly a passing game that is 28th in yards.

Tomlin said Wilson was in pole position and named the team’s QB1 in training camp but was inactive over the first half-dozen games due to an injury. For the first time all season, Wilson has not appeared on the injury report this week and Tomlin has elected to go with the veteran and former Super Bowl champion in the starting lineup.

All of a sudden, Sunday night is as provocative a game as there is on the Week 7 slate even with the Jets struggling (2-4) carrying a three-game losing streak into the evening and the Steelers having lost two of their previous three.

New York will have Aaron Rodgers under center and reuniting with his former Packers teammate Davante Adams, who was acquired via trade from the Las Vegas Raiders this week.

The Steelers, who dismantled the Adams-less Raiders in Week 6, 32-13, to end a modest two-game losing streak, will see Wilson make his 2024 and Pittsburgh debut.

The 35-year-old won a Super Bowl and earned nine Pro Bowl trips during a decade with the Seattle Seahawks. He was traded to the Denver Broncos ahead of the 2022 campaign and did not play well at all in the Mile High City. Benched over the last two games of each of his Denver seasons, Wilson was released by the Broncos this past offseason and signed by the Steelers for little of nothing.

Wilson has come out on top more times than not in his career against the Jets, having earned a 3-1 record as a starter with 11 touchdowns and just one interception, though he lost his last meeting with New York last season as the Broncos starter. He has also lost each of his previous two team debuts, as a rookie with the Seahawks against the Arizona Cardinals in 2012 and in 2022 with the Broncos against the Seahawks on Monday Night Football.

This will be the eighth career matchup between Wilson and Rodgers, each of the prior seven seeing them start for the Seahawks and Packers, respectively. Rodgers owns a slim 4-3 advantage. Now they are each in different uniforms doing their best to prove they can still lead a team to the Super Bowl.