Haason Reddick’s arrival after a lengthy holdout has given a much-needed boost to a Jets defense that had been without Pro Bowl defensive end Jermaine Johnson since he tore his Achilles in the season opener. Based on Thursday night’s game, where the Jets racked up eight sacks and held Pro Bowl quarterback CJ Stroud to just 11 completions on 44 dropbacks, his insertion into the lineup is already paying dividends.
Let’s take a deep dive into some of the things the Jets have been having success with now that Reddick is on the team and how these things compare to what they were doing last season and earlier this year.
Reddick didn’t get on the board himself until the last minute of the game when he beat right tackle Tytus Howard with a speed rush to get to Stroud. He and Quinnen Williams were ultimately credited with half a sack each on the play.
This doesn’t mean that Reddick’s contribution to that eight-sack effort was a minor one, though. He racked up an impressive eight pressures in 32 rushes according to NextGenStats, some of which led directly to sacks by his teammates.
On this play, he showcased his speed-to-power rushing, by driving Howard into Stroud’s lap. This forced Stroud to step up into the pocket where Solomon Thomas was able to sack him.
Reddick is replacing Bryce Huff on the Jets’ defensive line and, amazingly, Reddick has already generated more pressures than Huff has this season, despite playing just two games to Huff’s eight.
With Huff, who ended up with 10 sacks in 2023, in the line-up, the Jets had one pass rush package and personnel grouping that they used the majority of the time on passing downs. New York would typically put Williams over the center with John Franklin-Myers also inside, albeit lined up across from one of the tackles with Johnson outside him. This would leave Huff isolated against the other tackle, which usually ensured he had a one-on-one because the guard on that side of the field would be required to help the center handle Williams.
While most of Huff’s sacks came on non-passing downs from a conventional four-man wide-9 front, he generated pressure at a high rate from that isolation package.
In 2024, however, perhaps influenced by Franklin-Myers’ departure and the injury to Johnson, the Jets have been mixing up their personnel and blitz packages a lot more. One package they used a lot before Reddick arrived had Williams lined up on the edge and Will McDonald standing up near the center and rushing from the interior, for example.
Now that Reddick is on board, the Jets may line up more conventionally but can still show some creativity with their blitz packages. This particular play saw defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw drop into coverage while defensive back Kendall Sheffield blitzed. Jamien Sherwood, who initially faked like he would drop but then came on a delayed rush, ended up with the sack. Key to the success of the play was Reddick getting upfield on the left side while McDonald – who is having a breakout season with eight sacks – impressively beat pro bowler Laremy Tunsil.
Already you can see how Reddick’s arrival is having a knock-on effect on his teammates. It’s no coincidence that Williams has 1.5 sacks in each of the games Reddick played in after having registered just two in the first seven games, for example.
As teams adjust to this, there will be other days where Reddick, who had 50.5 sacks in the past four seasons and has forced 16 fumbles in his career, will be the beneficiary and come up with impact plays of his own.
We’ve focused mainly on pass rushing above but Reddick could also play a role in the Jets’ struggling run defense, which ranks 20th in the league for yards given up after last night’s game, albeit that they are – perhaps surprisingly – the seventh best team in the league for yards per carry surrendered.
It may be a little early to assess Reddick’s likely contributions in this area as he hasn’t played much on running downs so far. Over 70 percent of his snaps in his first two games as a Jet have been on pass plays and he doesn’t have any tackles or missed tackles against the run yet.
Reddick has always been a solid run defender, but it’s never been his main strength, and he probably isn’t a difference-maker in that area, but that could still produce an upgrade over any of the other linemen in the rotation whose snaps he will be taking over if they’ve been struggling. There was one play last week where he set the edge well to stretch a run to the outside where it was stopped by a teammate for a short gain.
Pass rushing is what got him paid, though, and that’s what he’s here to do. While it’s still early, Reddick is already having a positive impact on the pass rush as a whole and there may yet be more impact plays to come from him, especially since he has the motivation of an incentive-laden contract to live up to.
Now that the Jets have finally put an end to their losing streak, they could feasibly get back into playoff contention if they can stack a few more wins, but they don’t really have any margin for error. If their pass rush can be as dangerous as it was on Thursday night every week, though, Reddick could prove to be just what they needed to spark their turnaround.
