TAMPA — If all goes well, Haason Reddick will be ticked off when he reports to training camp at One Buc Place.

He will be indignant for the first preseason game, furious for the regular season opener and outraged by Thanksgiving.

By season’s end, he’ll be slamming the door on his way out of town.

But only if we’re lucky.

You see, that’s what you hope for when you sign an elite player on a mission to recoup the millions and millions of dollars he just squandered on a historically bad contract maneuver. You want him angry, and you want him seeking vindication.

Presumably, that’s what the Bucs were counting on when they agreed to terms with the two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher on a $14 million, one-year deal Monday.

Reddick now has 17 games — not counting the postseason — to prove to the NFL that he deserved the contract extension that the Eagles wouldn’t give him, that the Jets balked at offering and that no other team was willing to ponder at the trade deadline.

Then-Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick (7) sacks Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford during a 2023 game in Inglewood, Calif. [ JEFF LEWIS | Associated Press, 2023 ]

Instead of getting the deal of a lifetime, Reddick ended up losing money and much of the 2024 season by staging the longest holdout the NFL has seen in recent years. His stock dropped so precipitously that the Bucs swooped in and signed him to a one-year, prove-it deal that is not quite the bounty established by guys who harass quarterbacks as frequently as Reddick.

If you don’t think so, just consider his contemporaries.

From 2020 to 2023, there were only four players who accumulated 50 or more sacks in the NFL. Myles Garrett just reupped with the Browns for four years, $160 million. T.J. Watt has a five-year, $81 million deal with the Steelers, and Trey Hendrickson signed two contracts with the Bengals that also totaled $81 million over five years.

Meanwhile, Reddick belongs to the Bucs for one year at $14 million.

On the surface, it’s a great deal for a team with a pass rush deficiency and Super Bowl aspirations. But it’s not without its risks, too.

Reddick will turn 31 early next season, and he’s coming off a complete disaster of a year in New York. Unhappy that the Eagles would not sign him to an extension after the 2023 season, Reddick pressured Philadelphia into trading him to the Jets. He had one year remaining on his contract at $14.25 million, and he promptly skipped every offseason workout to force New York into giving him the raise he wanted.

The Jets made an offer, but it did not satisfy Reddick and so he held out of training camp. And the preseason games. And the start of the regular season. His agent dropped him, no one would trade for him, and Reddick accumulated millions in fines and lost wages.

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Then-Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick (7) reacts after sacking Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott during a 2023 game in Arlington, Texas. [ MICHAEL AINSWORTH | Associated Press, 2023 ]

By the time he surrendered and agreed to a restructured one-year deal, he’d lost about $5 million from the $14.25 million salary that he already hated. And, after averaging 12½ sacks for the previous four seasons, he got one sack in 10 games with the Jets.

Think he might be motivated in 2025?

It’s not a foolproof plan for the Bucs, but it’s better than taking a chance on finding another Shaq Barrett on the free-agent market or trading draft picks to pry Hendrickson loose from Cincinnati. It also gives Tampa Bay a little more flexibility if general manager Jason Licht isn’t impressed with the pass rushers in the upcoming draft and wants to use his first-round pick on a linebacker or defensive back.

The Bucs have potentially filled their most glaring hole from 2024, and they did it without risking a long-term deal or utilizing a high draft pick. That doesn’t guarantee the plan will work, but it’s a pretty shrewd way to correct a problem that has vexed the Bucs in recent years.

The rest is up to Reddick.

He’s gone from being one of the premier pass-rushers in the league to being a guy who could not tempt any team to trade for him last October for a second- or third-day draft pick. Had he just showed up, played under the final year of his contract and posted another 10-sack season, he would be $5 million richer and would likely have another multi-year contract today.

Instead, he has to prove to 32 general managers and coaches that he’s still one of the best at his position in a do-or-die season at age 31.

It’s a risk for Reddick. And it could be a steal for the Bucs.

John Romano can be reached at [email protected]. Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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