Bargain.
So did the Bucs hit a home run with Haason Reddick by giving a guy who had 50.5 sacks from 2020-2023 on a prove-it deal? Only time will tell. But a numbers guy from the four-letter sure likes it.
BSPN is looking back at all the top free agent signings now that free agency is winding down. And Walder — a man who never met a number he didn’t like — really likes that the Bucs got one of the best pass rushers in the game, one year removed from dominating the league, for only [$12 million guaranteed](https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/43957885/2025-nfl-free-agency-grades-signings-trades-latest-best-worst-deals-draft-outlook).
> **Buccaneers signing Edge Haason Reddick
> The deal:** One year, $14 million, ($12 million guaranteed)
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> **Grade:** B+
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> The Bucs had a _major_ need for an edge rusher who could generate pressure and decided to roll the dice on Reddick. It’s an upside play, and I think it’s one worth making.
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> Reddick is coming off a lost season with the Jets in which he held out until Oct. 20 before playing 10 games. He recorded just a single sack and managed a wildly disappointing 12% pass rush win rate — a dramatic departure from his past.
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> It’s fully possible we were seeing the beginning of Reddick’s decline. After all, he’s 30 years old, which is the wrong side of the curve for an edge rusher. Or Reddick just wasn’t in the place he needed to be to produce after missing the offseason, training camp and first seven weeks of the season. The latter scenario is plenty plausible.
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> The good news for the Bucs? They don’t have to pay that much to find out — only $14 million. And they’re the sort of team that should make this risk. They’ve made the playoffs all three seasons under Todd Bowles but must have some breaks go their way to make a deep run.
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> If Reddick gets back to the player he was — he was a 22% PRWR player with 11.0 sacks as recently as 2023 — he’ll be an absolute bargain for the Bucs.
This is the key question for Joe: Reddick’s age. Joe wishes he could find it but a statgeek of some import had a graphic on Twitter earlier this year that showed how dramatically most edge rushers fall off the cliff when they hit 30.
Just like everything else, it wasn’t an absolute that every edge rusher lost his mojo at age 30. The vast majority did.
It seemed only the elite still had quarterbacks shatting their pants after they reached the grand old age of 30. And even for those guys, Father Time was a brutal taskmaster.
The pass rush win-rate for Reddick last year is wild how much he dropped off. Joe sure hopes that was because Reddick wasn’t used right and/or missing all offseason workouts put him in a bind that he couldn’t properly bounce back from.