Eagles

After Washington Diss, Haason Reddick Wants Temple Teammate to “Come on Home”

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Mar 17th, 2022 · 9:45 AM EDT

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Haason Reddick is a Bird, and he wants his former Temple Owls to also become Birds:

@MattIoannidis come on home!!!

— Haason 7 Reddick (blue check) (@Haason7Reddick) March 17, 2022

The background here is actually notable. It’s not just a guy tweeting at a former college teammate.

Matt Ioannidis was released by the Commanders this week, presumably to make room for Carson Wentz’s contract. The agent then came out and said Warshington lied to their face, via Stephen Whyno at The Associated Press:

Ioannidis’ release caught his camp off guard. Alan Herman said he and fellow agent Jared Fox met with Commanders VP of football administration Rob Rogers and director of pro personnel Chris Polian at the NFL scouting combine earlier this month for the specific purpose of making sure their client was in the team’s plans.

“They looked us straight in the eye, Rob Rogers, and Rob basically said to Jared and myself: ‘Absolutely not. We have no thoughts of releasing Matt Ioannidis,’” Herman told The Associated Press. “We don’t particularly care to be lied to to our face. I don’t like when someone lies to my face.

“They took him out of the free agent market now for two days. That puts us now at a disadvantage because other teams have paid other defensive linemen contracts, and (Ioannidis) hasn’t been able to take advantage of that. That’s not the way you conduct business in the National Football League.”

As a quick aside, you keep hearing examples of other teams doing shit business with their players, but these reports never come out with the Eagles. It seems like Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie make an effort to do right by the players and agents in various negotiations.

RE: Ioannidis as a player, he had a down year in 2021 but logged 16 sacks in 2018 and 2019 and looked to be on his way to Pro Bowl status. He missed most of the 2020 season with a torn biceps and then returned to play all 16 games this year, logging seven tackles and three stuffs against the Eagles.

I don’t know if he’s a guy the Birds are interested in, because he’s probably more a rotational interior DT at age 28. Javon Hargrave is in the last year of his contract, Fletcher Cox is getting older, and Milton Williams and Marlon Tuipulotu are the “second unit” tackles with Hassan Ridgeway leaving in free agency. They do need another DT and they value that position, but they might be in line to make another draft selection there.

Either way, would be nice to see Ioannidis sack Carson Wentz at some point next year, then turn toward Dan Snyder’s box and pull his pants down for 15-yard taunting penalty.