The Eagles had a busy first day of free agency.
While their addition of running back Saquon Barkley stole headlines, their bigger free agent deal went to defensive end Bryce Huff.
The former Jet got a three-year deal that’s reportedly worth just over $51 million with and includes $34 million in guaranteed money.
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You might know a bit about Huff, who was a clear target for the Eagles. But here are 10 things you might not know about the Eagles’ newest defensive end:
1. Huff had a breakout season in 2023, picking up 10 sacks after compiling just 7 1/2 in his previous three seasons combined. But sacks don’t always tell the full story.
And the analytics — no matter where they’re from — are able to dig a little deeper into Huff’s prowess as a pass rusher.
According to ProFootballFocus, Huff has been one of the most consistent pass rush winners in the NFL over the last two seasons.
2023 - Top win % with minimum of 250 pass rush snaps
1. Myles Garrett: 27.5%
2. Micah Parsons: 24.1%
3. Bryce Huff: 22.9%
4. Nick Bosa: 22.3%
5. Aidan Hutchinson: 21.3%
2022 - Top win % with minimum of 150 pass rush snaps
1. Bryce Huff: 25.6%
2. Myles Garrett: 22.5%
3. Nick Bosa: 21.0%
4. Brandon Graham: 20.7%
5. Micah Parsons: 19.5%
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2. While he’s grown into a really good NFL player, Huff was not a very heralded prospect coming out of Memphis. He went undrafted and wasn’t even invited to the NFL Combine in 2020. Heck, he didn’t even get an invite to the Senior Bow, which is held annually in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama.
And because of COVID-19, the Memphis pro day was canceled. So Huff wasn’t able to get a ton of exposure during that pre-draft process, aside from his appearance at the East-West Shrine Game, where he measured at 6-foot-1, 254 pounds.
3. Huff played just 42% of the Jets’ defensive snaps in 2023 and his career high was 51% back in 2021. So it is fair to wonder if he’ll be able to keep up his rate of production with a higher workload.
But in 2023, there’s no question he was productive, especially given his limited snaps. In fact, just two players in the last 10 years have had double digit sacks on fewer snaps:
1. Josh Uche (2022) — 11 1/2 sacks in 374 snaps
2. Brandon Graham (2022) — 11 sacks in 474 snaps
3. Bryce Huff (2023) — 10 sacks in 480 snaps
4. Julius Peppers (2017) — 11 sacks in 499 snaps
5. Ziggy Ansah (2017) — 12 sacks in 516 snaps
4. With 17 1/2 career sacks, Huff is ninth among active undrafted players in the NFL. The top spots are owned by Denico Autry and Shaq Barrett, who each have 59.
Huff has the 12th most sacks ever for a UDFA through four seasons and the most since Junior Galette had 21 1/2 from 2010-13.
5. After beginning his career at Memphis as a linebacker, Huff moved to the defensive line as a senior in 2019 but the results were similar.
Over his final two seasons in college, Huff had 15 sacks, 34 1/2 tackles for loss and 3 forced fumbles.
6. While the Eagles turned over most of their defensive coaching staff, the one guy they did keep was defensive ends/outside linebackers coach Jeremiah Washburn. One thing Washburn consistently preaches to his players about is get-off. Heck, the Eagles post their get-off times in the meeting room and compete about it.
So it’s worth noting that Huff definitely has this trait. He gets off the ball super fast. In fact, his average get-off time was fifth in the NFL in 2023 at .75 seconds, according to NFL Next Gen Stats:
1. Myles Garrett — .66
2. Trey Hendrickson — .70
t-3. Nick Bosa — .73
t-3. Josh Sweat — .73
5. Bryce Huff — .75
7. During the NFL Combine last month, Jets general manager Joe Douglas seemed open to the idea of re-signing Huff but let it be known that Huff was going to have an opportunity to get paid elsewhere.
“Bryce is an outstanding player,” Douglas said in Indianapolis. “He definitely deserves this opportunity to see where he is in the open market.”
After the Jets drafted defensive end Will McDonald IV with the 15th overall pick last year, Huff thought he was going to get traded. He even “limited his belongings” so that if he was traded it would be easier to move, according to Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic.
Instead of trading Huff last offseason, the Jets held on to him for a season where they expected to be contenders and Huff had a double digit sack season. Because the Jets are expected to be relatively quiet in free agency, there’s a good chance they’ll get a compensatory pick back after losing him.
8. For most of the 2023 season, the Eagles’ edge rushers stayed on their respective sides of the line: Sweat on the right, Haason Reddick on the left. With both of those guys on the trade block, it seems notable that Huff is comfortable playing on either side of the line. He had to be flexible because he wasn’t a starter in New York.
Here’s how Huff’s D-line snaps broke down in 2023:
Left: 269
Right: 198
In October, Huff had a 1 1/2-sack game against the Eagles. His full sack came rushing from the left against an overmatched Jack Driscoll and his half sack came from the right side after Jalen Hurts stepped up and tried to run.
9. Initially committing to South Alabama, Huff flipped his commitment to Memphis after getting recruited heavily by former Memphis head coach Mike Norvell, who is now the head coach at Florida State.
Huff was teammates with Eagles running back Kenny Gainwell at Memphis.
10. Huff was a two-star recruit out of St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile, Alabama. The Saints won back-to-back Class 5A state titles in football in Huff’s junior and senior seasons in 2014 and 2015. As a senior, Huff had 93 tackles, 7 sacks and 13 QB hurries.
While Huff is still considered undersized, he said in a Q&A with the NY Post last year that he was 5-foot-7 as a freshman in high school and prayed for a bit more height. Luckily, he got it.
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