August 30, 2023
Haason Reddick still remembers the texts he got from Jalen Hurts after signing with the Eagles in the Spring of 2022.
By that point, the Camden native edge rusher had already faced Hurts twice as a starting quarterback – once as a member of the Arizona Cardinals in December 2020, and then the season after with the Carolina Panthers in October 2021.
And he remembers the battles, too – winning some, losing others, and with the stat line showing that he ended up with three sacks in total on Hurts across those two games.
Hurts apparently remembers too.
In an interview with Rich Eisen on Tuesday that covered a number of topics surrounding the Eagles – ranging from last year's Super Bowl run to his hit on Brock Purdy in the NFC Championship, expectations for this season, and the potential in young pass rushers Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis – Reddick was asked near the end of the conversation if he had a favorite Hurts story that painted a picture of the kind of person the star quarterback is.
And he remembered the texts.
As Reddick recalled in the interview:
"I was able to get him once or twice as far as sacking him, but even winning, I was able to beat him once, and he beat me once when I was with Carolina. I remember when I got signed here, he was the first one to text me, 'Hey, man. I am GLAD you are here.'
"I'm like 'I'm glad to be here.'
"He was like 'NO, LISTEN. I'm tired of you chasing me around on the field. I'm glad now that you are here and I no longer have to worry about you.'
"[He's] just extremely humble. A great human being, Rich. That's my story. That's my J Hurts story." [The Rich Eisen Show]
It was just the rest of the NFL that didn't get to enjoy that same luxury.
Playing off the edge alongside the established D-line vets in Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Javon Hargrave, and Josh Sweat, Reddick went on a tear in his first season with his hometown team, racking up 16 sacks and then causing chaos for the Giants and 49ers in the playoffs.
A dream season got stopped just shy of a storybook ending in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs, but with Reddick, Cox, Graham, and Sweat all returning alongside an influx of young pass-rushing talent in the form of Carter, Davis, and Nolan Smith, the expectations remain just as high and with all eyes forward.
"Last year is last year," Reddick told Eisen. "The only thing about last year that I think about is getting back to the Super Bowl. Other than that, what happened last year is like water under the bridge.
"We gotta keep moving forward."
Check out Reddick's full interview with Eisen below:
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