Same story, different day for Haason Reddick in Tampa Bay...

Kyle Crabbs discusses Tampa Bay Buccaneers pass rusher Haason Reddick missing OTAs.

Transcript

00:00It turns out the more things change, the more they stay the same for Hassan Reddick,

00:04who is not in attendance this week for the start of Tampa Bay Buccaneers OTAs.

00:12I'm Kyle Krabs with A to Z Sports, and it wasn't all that long ago that Hassan Reddick was

00:17considered one of the hottest pass rushers in football. He had the innate ability to disrupt

00:22the game in big moments and was a game changer for the Philadelphia Eagles. But his quest for

00:28a new long-term contract saw him ultimately traded to the New York Jets in a saga that

00:33included a holdout that extended into the regular season. Reddick, after that disastrous year last

00:40year in New York, signed a one-year $14 million contract this offseason with the Tampa Bay

00:46Buccaneers. But as OTAs have kicked off this week, Hassan Reddick is nowhere to be found.

00:53Todd Bowles put on a brave face in front of the media on Tuesday, stating,

00:58I'm sure one of these days we'll see him. And the Bucs are probably wise to assume that Reddick

01:04will indeed show up once things become mandatory. Let's be totally fair. OTAs at this point is

01:11strongly encouraged, but technically voluntary. And for a player like Reddick, whose reputation has

01:19evolved and may ultimately see him become one of the next pass rush mercenaries on a year-by-year

01:25basis, that may mean until the dollars are on the line, Reddick's totally comfortable not

01:31participating and doing his own thing. There's been more than one pass rusher in recent history who

01:37has been content to not even sign with a team until the start of training camp, intend on maximizing

01:43their earnings potential while not having to do all of the extra offseason bells and whistles.

01:49At the end of the day, rushing the passer can be boiled down to your ability to beat an opposing

01:55offensive tackle on a third and seven plus. But if that's the intent that Reddick has for himself

02:02and the vision he has for his career at this stage of the game, then those aspirations he once had for a

02:07long-term contract with lots of guaranteed money are probably out the window because teams will

02:13probably treat him like the next Jadeveon Clowney or Yannick Ngakwe or Leonard Floyd as a guy who

02:20signs a bunch of one-year deals to come rush the passer somewhere. And if things go well,

02:25you might renegotiate a new one-year contract. And if things don't, you'll be off to the next stop

02:30along the way. There's nothing wrong with that. And there's plenty of NFL players who have made

02:35successful livings with that approach. But Reddick's focus when he held out from the Jets

02:40was to secure a long-term deal. If that's no longer in the cards, then more power to his son

02:47Reddick. But if I were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I'd at least be looking with a bit of a side eye

02:52towards Reddick and hope to see him sooner rather than later. Because if I don't, it would probably

02:59serve as a cautionary tale for any team looking to do business with him moving forward.