Haason Reddick Holdout From New York Jets Passes A Major Financial Threshold

Some playwright from, like, 2000 years ago coined the term about having to spend money to make money and people on Wall Street go by the philosophy every day, but the strategy so far hasn't helped New York Jets linebacker Haason Reddick.

Across the river from Wall Street and right now, Reddick is spending tons of money on a contract holdout. An NFL player holding out, you see, is fined and Reddick has been fined multiple times before training camp began and every day for 15 days since Jets' camp opened.

Reddick's fine total has eclipsed $1 million. And the number will keep climbing if his absence continues.

Apr 4, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Jets linebacker Haason Reddick sits court side during the fourth quarter between the New York Knicks and the Sacramento Kings at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

What Haason Reddick Already Owes

The NFL collective bargaining agreement states a player on a veteran contract, which currently includes Reddick, must be fined $50,000 per day for an unexcused camp absence. So that's $750,000 right there for Reddick's check book.

Those daily fines cannot be rescinded.

Reddick also missed mandatory minicamp and was fined $100,000 for that. So, he's at $850K in fines.

And then there are discretionary fines the Jets can levy that amount to approximately $300,000. Coach Robert Saleh has said previously he "assumes" the team will levy that fine and since he's got a major say, we believe him. 

So Reddick is over $1 million already.

Haasan Reddick not happy with Brian Balldinger. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)

$1 Million Is A Lot

Even if the Jets give Reddick a break and don't levy the discretionary fine as a gesture of good will, the player is only three more days of missed camp days from hitting the milestone $1 million mark.

There's a technical NFL term for this: Ouch!

The Reddick hold out has not been a distraction to the Jets in the way perhaps a hold in might be because the player is out of sight and generally out of mind of other players, coaches and even the media.

(He better be on the mind of the personnel department charged with either signing him or trying to trade him.)

But there are issues beyond the fine schedule and intangible distractions that simply aren't going away barring a new contract being done:

Head coach Robert Saleh of the New York Jets needs a successful season or the team is likely to fire him. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

Football Ramifications Of Reddick Holdout

It has to do with football. Like, how effective might a player new to the system that has skipped the offseason conditioning program, missed OTAs, missed minicamp and missed the start of training camp, possibly be when/if he finally reports?

"I don't know," Saleh told reporters this week, "because there's examples of players who, like Aaron Donald, Chris Jones a couple years ago, who didn't show up to Week One and they did just fine. 

"When you get to that stage in your career, I don't have the right answer for you on that one."

Those players did indeed hold out for new contracts and the hold out stretched into the regular season. They reported when they got new or reworked deals. But they had been on their teams previously.

Reddick is brand new to the Jets. He was present for an introductory zoom press conference in April and hasn't been with the team since.

Plus, Reddick has been a productive player. But to equate him to Chris Jones or Aaron Donald is a stretch.

Saleh has put a good face on the situation, suggesting the player will be in shape when he finally shows up, talking about Reddick being a veteran who will eventually get this resolved, and sometimes merely diverting the conversation to players currently on the roster.

But this situation is not optimal.

GLENDALE, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 09: Haason Reddick #7 of the Philadelphia Eagles sacks Kyler Murray #1 of the Arizona Cardinals during the fourth quarter at State Farm Stadium on October 09, 2022 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)

Reddick Might Become A One-Year Rental

Reddick has already forfeited seven percent of his scheduled $14.25 million base salary. He's already missed out on a $250,000 workout bonus as well.

By next week, his losses will climb past 10 percent of his scheduled salary.

And still no contract.

Reddick right now is the 19th highest paid edge rusher in the NFL. So he, probably rightly, believes he's underpaid.

But he's going to have to get at least a $10 million per year raise on an annual average metric to be in the top five or six highest paid edge rushers. And that would probably be a difficult plateau for the Jets to climb for a player who has never had on the team and will be 30 years old in September.

So why is this curious?

Because there seem to be mistakes everywhere.

Reddick obviously felt some kind of way about playing for the Jets in that he chose to conduct a full-on holdout rather than a hold-in – whereby he reports to camp but doesn't practice to avoid fines.

He obviously believed he needed to make a loud statement about his contract situation to light an urgency fire under the Jets to get a deal done.

The costly strategy, so far, has failed.

The Jets obviously failed to read Reddick's intentions correctly before they intended to trade for him. The Eagles got rid of Reddick despite the fact he delivered 27 sacks over the past two years, in part, because they didn't want to meet his upcoming contract demands.

The Jets took on the assignment believing they could at least have Reddick for one season.

And that's what it might come down to.