Even though the Baltimore Ravens paid $112 million for a free-agent edge rusher with Trey Hendrickson, that’s hardly a guarantee of success — and does little to address depth issues that helped take the team down in 2025.
The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec put 4 edge rushers on the Ravens in his 53-man roster prediction — Hendrickson, Zion Young, Mike Green and Tavius Robinson — but left the door open to sign a free agent as well.
“Will the Ravens add another veteran to this mix?” Zrebiec wrote on July 28 as the Ravens opened training camp. “General manager Eric DeCosta has done it several times before with pass rushers, and options like … Haason Reddick are available.”
Reddick, who has approximately $80.5 million in career earnings, is a 2-time Pro Bowler and NFL All-Pro who flamed out with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a 1-year, $14 million contract in 2025.
After a messy contract dispute with consecutive teams on the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Jets that cost him most of the 2024 season, Reddick had just 2.5 sacks in 13 games with the Buccaneers while the franchise missed the playoffs for the 1st time since 2019.
Reddick 1 of NFL’s Top Remaining Free Agents
In May, Reddick was still on ESPN’s list of the Top 20 available free agents.
“Reddick had 2.5 sacks and 23 pressures for the Bucs last season,” ESPN’s Matt Bowen wrote. “With 61.5 career sacks, he could draw interest from teams that like to scheme their pass rushers out of loaded fronts.”
There was plenty of opportunity for Reddick to continue banking big paychecks with even a middling performance in 2025, and the Buccaneers were initially praised for signing him.
“Tampa Bay also took what I thought was a worthwhile gamble on Reddick at one year, $14 million,” ESPN’s Seth Walder wrote in July 2025. “Reddick is coming off a lost season that featured a long contract standoff, 10 games played and only one sack. But Reddick has been an elite pass rusher (he posted double-digit sacks every year from 2020 to 2023) and could help Todd Bowles’ defense if he bounces back.”
Haason Reddick’s Struggles Were His Own Fault
The Jets traded a 2026 3rd-round pick to the Eagles for Reddick in March 2024 and thought they were getting a playmaker for a team ready to make a playoff push.
Reddick thought he was getting a new contract. He held out of minicamp and training camp and requested a trade in August. Then, he missed the first 6 games of the regular season, incurring massive fines until he returned to the Jets for the final 10 games. He had his worst year since 2019 with just 1.0 sack as the Jets went 5-12 overall.
It was a bad look for Reddick, who was due to make almost $16 million in 2024 in the final season of the 3-year, $45 million contract he signed with the Eagles in March 2022.
The Eagles now seem to be the big winners in the trade after using the pick from the trade on 6-foot-9, 346-pound Miami offensive tackle Markel Bell, who is already being viewed as a possible replacement for future Hall of Famer Lane Johnson.
Ravens Urged to Sign $80 Million Free Agent Edge Rusher