This was not the way Josh Huff’s second year was supposed to go.
This was supposed to be his breakout year. His breakthrough.
Huff, a third-round pick last year, began training camp as a starter and had a decent training camp.
And now?
On Sunday, he got just four snaps in the Eagles’ loss to the Redskins in Landover, Maryland, the fewest snaps he’s gotten in his career in a game he’s been active for.
Huff missed the first month of last year with a shoulder injury but averaged 17½ plays per game the rest of the year.
This year, he got 36 and 33 snaps the first two weeks, was out with a hamstring Week 3 and then played just four plays on Sunday.
What’s the story?
“I mean, I’m pretty sure you’ve already talked with the coaches,” Huff said at his locker after practice Tuesday. “Whatever they told you guys, then that’s what it is.”
As a matter of fact, offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur touched briefly on Huff before practice but didn’t offer much in the way of an explanation to why a team struggling so much on offense gave a receiver the team was very high on during the preseason just four plays.
"I think it was just the way the game played out," Shurmur said. "He's part of our plans. We had some things in there for him to do and then as the game gets rolling, sometimes the guys will play a handful of plays more than we think or a handful of plays less. But there's no real reason for it."
Huff said his minimal workload Sunday was not related to the hamstring injury that shelved him for the win over the Jets.
He said he was sore early in the week but was healthy by game day
“Felt great Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday they said it was going to be a game decision, and that’s it,” he said.
“Tuesday, I finished practice. Wednesday, I kind of pulled back because I felt my hamstring tightening up. Then my doctor flew out here Wednsday night. And from there, Thursday, I was flying around, moving around well. I felt like I had a great Thursday practice, and I was looking forward to Sunday and they told me it would be a game-time decision. That’s all I got.”
All Huff has to show for a year and a month in the NFL is 12 catches for 137 yards.
He’s shown flashes. A 44-yard catch against the Cowboys last year and a club-record 107-yard kickoff return touchdown against the Titans.
Other than that?
Just a ton of potential and a ton of frustration.
A month into this season, he doesn’t have a catch longer than 13 yards.
“Honestly, I can just control what I can control,” Huff said. “I come in day in and day out, bust my ass and show these guys that I’m up for it and ready to go.
“They’ve got the final decision on whether they’re going to play me or not.”
The last time a wide receiver the Eagles drafted in the first three rounds produced this little at this point of his second year, it was third-round pick Billy McMullen, drafted in 2003.
Before that? Mike Bellamy, a second-round pick in 1992.
Huff was the 13th wide receiver drafted last year. The 12 taken ahead of him have averaged 66 catches for 833 yards with 5½ touchdowns.
Four more taken after him have more catches and yards.
Riley Cooper, Nelson Agholor and Miles Austin all had big catches Sunday, so it’s hard to say the Eagles must get Huff on the field more.
But he was a third-round draft pick. And he has not yet started playing like one.
Despite the lack of work, Huff said he doesn’t plan to talk to his coaches.
“No,” he said. “I let the way I practice and the way I perform on the field speak for me.
“I can only control what I can control. The rest is history. … I’ll just wait till my number is called.”