Joe Douglas sat quietly in the second row of the press box Sunday, watching his team eke out its first win of the season — a 24-17 three-hour stress test against the Titans at Nissan Stadium.
The worst of what Douglas witnessed was Jermaine Johnson, the best edge rusher on the team, being lost for the season with an Achilles injury he suffered in the third quarter.
The sight of Johnson being carted off the field had to leave a sickening knot in Douglas’ stomach.
Hopefully, it spurred him to make a call Sunday night or Monday to Haason Reddick’s agent, Tory Dandy, in an effort to end the stubborn nonsense that’s become the story of the pass rusher’s bizarre holdout from the team.
The Jets needed Reddick, for whom they traded on March 29 in exchange for a conditional 2026 third-round pick from the Eagles, before Johnson was injured.
They need him more now.
The first two Jets games have provided Reddick with a boost in leverage as they were able to generate little in the way of a pass rush on San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy in a lopsided season-opening loss and then the Johnson injury.
This doesn’t mean Douglas must cave to Reddick’s every demand — whatever exactly those are.
But it does mean he needs to press the accelerator on trying to find a compromise. It means calling Dandy and finding a middle ground — whatever that is.
Because no one’s winning here. Not the Jets. Not Reddick. They’re all losing.
The Jets are losing out on Reddick’s elite pass-rushing skills that could put them over the edge in their title chase. And Reddick is losing money. A lot of money. He’s forfeiting about $800,000 in salary for every game he misses.
According to ESPN, if Reddick holds out all year, it will cost him approximately $21.75 million — his $14.25 million base salary, $4.5 million in fines and another $3 million in bonus forfeiture.
This stalemate got acrimonious Aug. 12 when Reddick requested that the Jets trade him and Douglas quickly shot back with a public statement that he has zero plans to do so.
In the big picture, regardless of how badly the Jets need Reddick, they hold the most significant card here. Because if he fails to join the team by Week 10, he won’t get credit for the 2024 season and would remain Jets property in 2025.
Then this slow dance could continue into next year. And that would be a colossal and unnecessary waste of everyone’s time.
The Jets have remained adamant that they won’t negotiate with Reddick unless he returns to the building and joins the team. It is time for Douglas to soften that stance and negotiate a new contract before Reddick returns to the team — as long as Dandy is willing to negotiate.
Reddick, who’s in the final year of his three-year contract, has not let it be publicly known exactly what he wants.
As a player who recorded 50.5 sacks in the past three seasons, he presumably wants a multi-year deal that falls in the same range as the likes of T.J. Watt’s deal with the Steelers and Brian Burns’ with the Giants, both of whom average about $28 million per year.
If Douglas is uncomfortable giving Reddick a long-term deal, perhaps he can offer him a “Band-Aid’’ one-year deal for some $30 million or two years for $50 million.
Reddick has been to the Jets facility only once — on April Fools’ Day of all days, for his introductory news conference — and he hasn’t been back since.
Hopefully for everyone’s sake, the Jets and Reddick can stop the foolishness that’s taken place for the past four months, push aside the acrimony and come to a compromise and help everyone win.
There’s an urgency now. There should be for both sides.
Everyone knows this is a win-or-else season for Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh. The Jets, with the Aaron Rodgers window open for only so long, are in all-in mode.
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All-in means Reddick on the team.
Saleh has repeatedly said the team would “welcome him with open arms” if and when Reddick returns to the team.
“Joe and I speak all the time,’’ Saleh said Monday. “Joe knows exactly what we need and Joe knows exactly what’s on all of our minds. He’s very, very good at asking questions and understanding what we’re feeling, whatever angst if any, at any position.
“We got the guys that we have in our room, guys that we love. The guys that we’ve been working with … are the guys we are going to continue to work with until everyone figures it out.’’
It’s time the Jets and Reddick figure this out, come to a compromise and put an end to the stubborn nonsense.
