Eagles’ Haason Reddick ready to pass rush his way to Super Bowl: ‘This is an all-out bloody turf war for him’

PHILADELPHIA – Eagles rookie Kyron Johnson occupies the locker next to Haason Reddick, the six-year veteran who collected a career-high 16 sacks that tied for second most in the NFL during the regular season.

To glean insights, Johnson listens intently.

“I always hear him saying, ‘I can’t wait to kill somebody out there!’” Johnson says. “This is an all-out bloody turf war for him.”

Reddick, 28, relishes each bull rush as he readies for Sunday’sNFC Championship Game against the 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field. Practiced in the art of forcing quarterbacks to the ground behind the line of scrimmage, Reddick, known as “The Weapon,” hand-fights blockers, slashes through crevices and finishes with violent efficiency.

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Having recorded double-digit sacks for the third straight season – each one for a different team – Reddick, a Camden native who signed a three-year, $45 million contract with the Eagles last March, believes credit is past due amid his havoc-wreaking homecoming. His five forced fumbles are tied for the best in the league, but he was not named one of the five finalists for defensive player of the year.

“I’m not crying or begging for respect, but it got to be there,” he says. “Three different teams, three different schemes, three different head coaches, three different DCs.”

He pauses.

“What that tell you?” he says.

Loose ends

Offensive coordinators can send grievances to the Gloucester Township Stallions’ clubhouse inside a rental hall on Clementon Avenue in Blenheim. George Trout, a defensive coordinator with the 120-pound team in 2006, was the first coach to turn Reddick loose on defense.

At 11, Reddick, who grew up in the McGuire Gardens Houses on Camden’s east side, played up on a team of 12-year-olds. He started on the B team and wanted to play tailback. But Damiere Byrd, who also would go on to play in the NFL, was ahead of him in that stable. Still, Reddick remained confident. In the team photograph, he had the most cocksure smile of the 25 boys and tilted his head so that the cameraman captured the diamond stud in his left ear.

Outside linebackers were a weak point during the season. Before the South Jersey Elite championship game, Trout assigned Reddick, No. 43 in blue, to outside linebacker and sent him on blitzes during the second half to secure the Stallions’ win.

“He was getting the quarterback out of the pocket,” Trout says. “He came up big for us.”

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Reddick possessed a unique blend of physicality and finesse. His grandfather, Big Ray, hauled steel pipes and worked with cement in construction jobs, and his father, also Ray, was a sprinter. Fran Brown, a Camden High graduate who had recently been cut after two NFL seasons, worked alongside Big Ray during summer breaks, and trained Haason in defensive back drills at various fields in Woodbury. Reddick, a Marvel Comics fan, demonstrated his agility after practice with sprints into three consecutive back flips.

“Guys didn’t believe he could it,” Brown says. “He thinks he’s Marvel superhero.”

At Haddon Heights High, Reddick played safety and tailback before a knee injury sidelined him for his entire junior season. He re-introduced his versatility with three touchdowns — a punt return, a rush and a screen catch — on five touches in the opener as a senior. On defense, he menaced wideouts but broke his leg during the season’s fourth game.

He feared he did not have enough film to draw full scholarship offers, and he was right. He enrolled at Temple across the Delaware River, walked on as a defensive back and reunited with Brown, an assistant coach. Brown recalls Reddick punishing starting cornerbacks as a scout team member whose mother had to take a loan so he could have a university meal plan.

“He would run the starting corners over, and the defensive coordinator got mad at him, wouldn’t let him be in the hitting drills anymore,” Brown says.

Reddick kept charging forward. When head coach Steve Addazio departed, Reddick, who stood 6-foot-1, 225 pounds, found a fit as safety under new coach Matt Rhule. Gaining muscle and confidence, he pivoted to outside linebacker before settling in as an edge rusher. He wore No. 7 during his senior season collected 22.5 tackles for loss (third best in the nation) and 10 1/2 sacks. He logged a game-high nine tackles at the Senior Bowl, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds at the combine, received a key to the city of Camden aboard Battleship New Jersey and was selected by the Arizona Cardinals with the No. 13 pick of the 2017 NFL Draft.

The desert proved difficult to navigate. As a rookie, he transitioned to inside linebacker, registered 2 ½ sacks and rotated between inside and outside roles. His second year wasn’t much better and after his third year, which saw him record one sack in September and nothing the rest of the season, the Cardinals declined to pick up his fifth-year option. With nothing to lose, he returned to the edge due when the Cardinals’ Chandler Jones suffered an injury, sacked Andy Dalton twice on “Monday Night Football,” terrorized the Giants with five sacks in one game a few weeks later and finished the season with six forced fumbles. In the offseason, he reconnected with Rhule, then the Carolina Panthers’ coach, and resembled All-Pro rusher Von Miller with his speed rushes off the edge. He collected another 11 sacks, including a pair against the Eagles.

When Philadelphia called following last season, he saw a chance to return home and boost a defense that ranked No. 31 in the league in sacks last season. Once signed, defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon sought Reddick’s insights on schemes and how he could best be deployed. Reinforcements also followed. Reddick watched general manager Howie Roseman sign defensive veterans like Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Suh during the season, and Reddick welcomed them all in the hunt. Three others finished the regular season with double-digit sack totals: Brandon Graham, Javon Hargrave and Josh Sweat collected 11 sacks each.

But no one found his way to the quarterback like Reddick. Before the season, he set 15 sacks as his goal because he believed that was the line between good and elite. In the past nine games, he has collected at least half a sack. Last week, in the 38-7 win over the Giants, he hit quarterback Daniel Jones twice on one play and recorded sacks on back-to-back plays -- a third-and-3 and a fourth-and-8.

“There’s a certain comfortability that I haven’t had in a long time,” Reddick says. “I’m able to be here, be comfortable and play looser.”

A table for seven

Reddick wants to return to Arizona.

If the Eagles beat San Francisco, they will fly cross-country and end their season at Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12. On a recent afternoon, Reddick smiles at the thought and starts listing his favorite places to eat in Phoenix and Scottsdale, from Bourbon & Bones to Steak 48 to Mastro’s to Ocean 44 to Toca Madera.

“I know all the places,” he says.

He is hungrier than ever.

“Let me stop telling you,” he says. “If we make it out there, I don’t need everybody having a reservation.”