Haason Reddick trade details don’t bode well for Eagles future draft pick

On Monday, April 1, the Philadelphia Eagles officially traded Haason Reddick to the New York Jets for a very particular conditional 2026 draft pick: one with two conditions that both must be met.

The conditions are that if Reddick plays at least 67.5% of defensive snaps and gets at least 10 sacks in the 2024 season, it will be the Jets’ second-round pick in the 2026 draft. If Reddick doesn’t meet both of those conditions, it will be the Jets’ third-round pick. 

The Jets edge rusher rotation has already killed the Eagles' chance of a second-round pick

If it feels like those conditions are weird and favorable towards the Jets, that’s because they are. So much to the point, that on the Eagles’ own website, they didn’t even mention the conditions, only that there are conditions. That’s some bad juju coming from Philly.

Reddick having a double-digit sack season in 2024 is pretty realistic since he’s been doing that for the past four seasons. Now that he has a real defensive coordinator, there’s no reason for him to slow down on that front. 

It’s the snap count condition that is wild. Edge rushers are incredibly (or at least should be) rotatable, and potential injuries aside, a player getting over two-thirds of the snap counts in a season is pretty outstanding for that position.

Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbricht, is very good at making sure his edges rotate. He’s been the DC for the Jets since 2021 and in that time only one edge rusher has played close to 67.5% of the defensive snaps. That would be Jermaine Johnson in 2023. 

Here's what Pro Football Reference tells us about the snap counts from the Jets' leading edge rushers under Jeff Ulbricht.

That’s bad news for the Eagles’ potential pick. We’ve had a good sample size to look at and not one single player has broken the 67.5% mark that the Eagles’ would need from Reddick in 2024. Reddick would be the Jets’ most talented edge, and even so, that historically doesn’t matter to Ulbricht as far as playing time goes.

The good news for the Eagles is that Reddick is just built different. He’s never missed a regular season game and he’s only ever played fewer than 67.5% of the snaps in a season just twice in his seven-year career that has spanned three different teams. 

Again, here’s what that looks like if you’re a visual person:

Is Ulbricht’s penchant for rotating edge rushers going to be able to outdo Reddick’s penchant for playing entirely too many snaps? Probably, but time will tell. It’s starting to look like someone finally beat Howie Roseman in a big-time trade.