Jets owner Woody Johnson wants Haason Reddick to report to the team: Will the holdout end?

There is a strange situation going on between the former Eagles defensive lineman and the team he joined in the team he joined this past offseason. Where it goes from here is anyone’s guess but rest assured we’ve not seen a situation like this before.

Woody Johnson wants Haason Reddick’s situation solved

With the ripples of Robert Saleh’s firing still in effect, it’s hard to believe that the Jets are back in the headlines just one day after axing the team’s head coach. Indeed, much has been said about the franchise’s shock decision and the intricacies of how it came to be. Ask Aaron Rodgers some will say.

Nonetheless, here we are with Jets owner Woody Johnson engaged in an apparent back-and-forth with one of his new employees. The man in question is two-time Pro Bowler Haason Reddick who joined the Jets from the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for a 2026 conditional pick back on April 1st. Where details are concerned, that pick will be a second-rounder should he face 67.5% of the team’s defensive snaps while notching double-digit sacks. Otherwise, it becomes a third-round pick.

Now, this is where things get bizarre. Despite being on the roster since April, Reddick has yet to show up for his new team on the grounds that he believes he was promised a new contract upon joining it. On the other hand, the Jets don’t see it that way at all, indicating that Reddick has gone back on his agreement to see out the final year of his current deal which included a non-guaranteed base salary of $14.25 million. To that end, Reddick has since lost $4.2 million of that annual salary due to his absence in the team’s first five games of the campaign.

“I don’t think any of us have seen anything like this, so I think you have to be part psychologist and some other [thing] to try to figure out what is actually going on,” Johnson told ESPN on Tuesday. As for the Jets, the team now sits on a 3-2 record amid the turmoil of Saleh’s firing and the speculation surrounding Aaron Rodgers and his possible role in the dismissal. Yet, it’s got to be said that the defense has not been the reason why the team has stumbled so far. New York has the fifth-ranked scoring defense in the NFL (17.0 points per game allowed), while ranking second in sack rate (11.4%), fourth in sacks (18.0), and fifth in quarterback pressure rate (39.8%).

That is all without Reddick on board which is to say, with him, who knows where the team would be. It is with that idea in mind that we imagine Johnson is trying to convince the 30-year-old to come into the fold. “...But he’s got to get here first,” Johnson. “So, Haason, get in your car, drive down I-95 and come to the New York Jets. We can meet you and give you an escort right in the building and you will fit right in and you’re going to love it here, and you’re going to feel welcome and you’re going to accomplish great things with us.” Watch this space.