Should the Rams trade for these Pro Bowl pass rushers?
Josh Sweat and Haason Reddick are available it seems. Could the Rams be a fit for either of them
The Eagles have over $40 million in cap space but are surprisingly trying to move players Josh Sweat and Haason Reddick for some more relief as they rework their defense for 2024. According to Ian Rapoport the team is fielding trade calls for both pass rushers. That begs the question, could the Rams make a trade for either player?
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I do believe it is possible. The Rams have traded for pass rushers Dante Fowler Jr. and Von Miller since Sean McVay became the head coach in 2017. Not to mention, general manager Les Snead has made plenty of other moves in similar fashion. Both players would make sense as fits but let’s discuss what both players bring to the table before we decide who makes the most sense.
Haason Reddick
Reddick is a former 2nd-team All Pro and two-time Pro Bowler. He has totaled 58 sacks in his career since 2017. The Eagles are Reddick’s third team as he was drafted out of Temple by the Arizona Cardinals, took a one year journey with the Carolina Panthers which was by far his worst year as a full-time starter and then settled in nicely in Philadelphia as an Eagle.
He was initially a hybrid edge defender inside linebacker coming out of college. He did finally get the chance to start as a pure edge defender in 2020 when he started a trend of haivng double digit sacks every season from there on. He offers consistent pressure off the edge and has finished at least top 15 in edge pressures in three of his last four starting seasons.
The concern with Reddick is that he’s on an expiring contract which means he’s not guaranteed to be back with your team even if you trade for him, he does turn 30 years of age in September and he’s been an inconsistent run defender.
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The good news about Reddick is you are pretty much guaranteed he’s going to win his pass rush reps at least 15 percent of the time and is going to generate at least 60 pressures on the quarterback and double digit sacks to boot.
Reddick has a $16 million cap hit this year with a straight up trade but the Rams if they made this acquisition would likely look to work that number down with the Eagles taking more of the contract on. I do think at the end of the day with his body of work he’s going to bring in at least a third round pick on the trade market. With that said the Rams projected trade package would be a 2024 third round pick for Reddick with the Eagles sending back over a sixth-rounder in return.
Josh Sweat
Sweat is a former Pro Bowler back in 2021 who has had 35 sacks in his career with the Eagles. He’s been with Philadelphia since he was drafted there in the fourth round out of Florida State back in 2018. The soon-to-be 27 year old has only one season in which he has demonstrated the ability to have double digit sacks. However, this past year was his best year, despite the lack of sack production.
The former Seminole dealt with a massive ACL injury right before he joined the college ranks and concerns about his health pushed him down the board in the NFL Draft. However, he has dealt with some other injuries at the pro level including a neck injury at the beginning of 2023 that did not cause him to miss time. The last three years Sweat has played in 49 games and has started all but three of them.
Sweat’s first year as a full-time starting edge defender was in 2021 where he finished 28th on the year in edge pressures with 46. The following year he finished with just 43 and was 39th in the league but this past year Sweat hit a new level in which he finished 14th with 68 pressures which was good enough to pass Haason Reddick’s 2023 total. Sweat is a much better run defender than Reddick which adds to his overall value not factoring in he’s also almost three years younger.
