Haason Reddick’s trade request is just another sign that the Jets can’t have nice things

In the latest sign that the Jets can’t have nice things, Pro Bowl pass rusher Haason Reddick has requested a trade. He’s done it before ever playing a down for New York.

Unfortunately, this is all too familiar to Jets fans.

News of Reddick’s trade request broke Monday amid an extended delay to training camp, prompting a swift response from general manager Joe Douglas that the Jets will not honor the request and will impose a penalty on Reddick that the collective bargaining agreement allows as long as he persists.

The news puts a damper on an offseason of hope for New York, leading Jets fans to believe, not without reason, that they actually have a shot at a Super Bowl. Aaron Rodgers is back to lead a roster with a strong stable of skilled players and a defense that projects as elite.

Reddick has been a big part of that defensive projection after arriving via an offseason trade from the Philadelphia Eagles. A two-time Pro Bowler and an All-Pro in 2022, Reddick has recorded at least 11 sacks in each of the last four seasons, including 16 in 2022.

Reddick joined the Jets amid much fanfare in March. He has yet to report to a Jets workout since then. Reddick is approaching the final year of a three-year, $45 million contract that he outperformed. He wanted an extension before he arrived in New York and still wants one. The two sides have yet to reach an agreement on one, and here the Jets stand with the promise of another season that threatens to be derailed before it even begins.

This is not unfamiliar territory in New York. Here’s a look back at some of the most crushing moments that have had the rug pulled out from under Jets fans.

Bill Belichick steps down, then builds a dynasty in New England

The New York Jets’ 2000 season was billed as one of great promise. After the firing of Bill Parcells, his defensive coordinator and protégé Bill Belichick—a brilliant defensive tactician with coveted NFL head coaching potential—was groomed to take over.

Belichick accepted the head coaching position in January 2000 and had a press conference scheduled for the next day to introduce him as head coach. Instead, this happened.

And that was that. The Jets underwent a transition of ownership from Leon Hess to Woody Johnson, and Belichick decided he wanted no part of it. Weeks later, Belichick took the head coaching position of the New England Patriots.

It’s a decision that changed the landscape and history of not just the Jets and the AFC East, but the entire NFL. And not for the good of the Jets.

Belichick, of course, went on to a 24-year Hall of Fame career in New England, with six Super Bowl victories. His Patriots tormented the Jets and their fans at every turn. And like Reddick, Belichick decided it was best to leave before his first official day on the job.

Butt fumble

Despite Belichick’s firing, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Jets in the 2000s. It was a period of relative success for a beleaguered franchise that hadn’t sniffed a Super Bowl since winning its third Super Bowl in 1969.

The Jets made six playoff appearances from 2001-2010, including trips to consecutive AFC Championship games with Mark Sanchez at quarterback in 2009 and 2010. Sanchez joined the Jets in 2009 as a promising rookie first-round draft pick out of USC. He didn’t blow the NFL away as a passer, but he proved competent enough to lead the Jets deep into the postseason.

That prowess didn’t last long. By Thanksgiving 2012, the Jets had started 4-6 and were on the verge of missing the playoffs for the second straight season. Then one of the most infamous plays in NFL history ensured they would.

With the Jets trailing the Patriots 14-0 in the second quarter, Sanchez took a first-down snap, then ran directly into the backside of right guard Brandon Moore and fumbled the ball. Safety Steve Gregory scooped it up and returned it for a Patriots touchdown. The butt fumble was born.

The score ran its course in a 35-point second quarter for the Patriots in a 49-19 New England victory. The Jets finished that season with four losses in their final six games en route to a 6-10 finish.

Sanchez’s career never recovered. He retired from the Jets after the 2012 season and started 11 more NFL games for three different teams over the next six seasons. The Jets have not returned to the playoffs since.

In the wake of the failed Sanchez era, the Jets made their next quarterback bet on Geno Smith. They selected Smith out of West Virginia in the second round of the 2013 draft and made him their starter the following season.

Smith’s first two NFL seasons were a mixed bag, to say the least. He completed 57.5 percent of his passes with 25 touchdowns and 34 interceptions in 30 games. The Jets went 11-18 in games in which he started.

But he showed progress and promise toward the end of his sophomore campaign by leading a 37-24 victory over the Miami Dolphins in the 2014 season finale. Smith completed 20 of 25 passes for 358 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions that day. It amounted to a perfect passer rating of 158.3 and was cause for excitement heading into the 2015 season.

Then Smith got punched in the face. During training camp in 2015, Jets linebacker IK Enemkpali threw what coach Todd Bowles described as a “sucker punch” to Smith’s face in the New York locker room. Enemkpali was promptly released. Smith suffered a broken jaw that cost him his season and gave Ryan Fitzpatrick the starting job.

Smith would start one more game for the Jets before leaving the franchise to play as a backup for the New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers and Seattle Seahawks, until he got another chance to start in Seattle in 2022, his ninth NFL season and third with the Seahawks.

That year, Smith delivered on the promise that earned him a second-round pick in 2013 while earning the first of two consecutive Pro Bowl berths. Was the delayed breakthrough the product of a lack of opportunity? Would Smith otherwise have made the move in his third season with the Jets? We’ll never know, thanks to Enemkpali’s fist.

Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles tendon

After the abject failure of the Zach Wilson era, the Jets made about as much of a splash as there is in the NFL with the acquisition of four-time NFL MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The Jets acquired Rodgers from the Packers in the 2023 draft in what they hoped would be the final piece to rounding out a roster otherwise built to compete for a Super Bowl.

We all know what happened next. Rodgers didn’t make it to his first possession with New York before a torn Achilles ended his 2023 season in his Jets debut on Monday Night Football. The Wilson era was revamped en route to a 7-10 finish and another postseason on the sidelines.

Rodgers is now back and healthy in training camp with the Jets hoping he can get back into shape after an Achilles injury at age 40. If that happens, the Jets have a chance.

That chance diminishes if the Jets can’t work something out with Reddick.

Reddick and the Jets could still reach a deal. And losing Reddick amid a contract breach wouldn’t be a fatal blow to New York’s season. But it would be the latest in a familiar refrain of disappointment that has been embedded in the Jets’ culture for decades.