Why Howie Roseman and Bryce Huff believe Huff’s story with the Eagles ‘is yet to be written’
Huff has played sparingly in the Eagles' playoff run. But his position coach, Jeremiah Washburn, and Roseman point to Javon Hargrave's slow start to his Eagles career as proof Huff can turn it around.
NEW ORLEANS — In the far corner of the hotel ballroom where Eagles players and coaches sat at tables for 45 minutes on Wednesday and Thursday, the seventh-highest-paid player on the team barely drew an audience.
Bryce Huff has had a quiet season, and during a week that is typically anything but, with the largest media contingent surrounding the Eagles since the last time they reached the Super Bowl two seasons ago, it has been a relatively quiet couple of days for him. The Eagles signed the edge rusher to the 10th-largest free-agent deal of 2024, but he limped out of the gates before suffering a torn ligament in his wrist that derailed his season.
It’s been a trying first season in Philadelphia for the 26-year-old Huff, who had a career-high 10 sacks with the New York Jets in 2023 but just 2½ this season while playing in 12 games and seeing his snap count plummet.
The frustration started right away. On the second day of training camp, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Huff didn’t yet look like the every-down player the Eagles signed him to be after they traded Haason Reddick last March. “It will be a work in progress,” Fangio said in July. That, Huff said, sort of started a domino effect. He was slow to adjust to Fangio’s scheme and was ticked off that people took what Fangio said and “ran with it.”
It lasted for weeks.
“I would calm down and then look at my phone and some new [stuff] would pop up,” Huff said. “It was just one thing after another.”
It was the most adversity Huff said he has dealt with during his five seasons in the NFL. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of Memphis and took off with the Jets, earning himself a three-year, $51.1 million free agency deal with the Eagles. He had to learn how to “block out the noise,” and it took a while. The frustration, Huff said, “clouded my mind and it was making it hard for me to really just focus on football.” He stopped paying attention to social media and told his friends to not send any negative posts his way.
“I had to make that adjustment to this environment,” he said. “I know there was a lot of stuff going on outside of me. I’m the type of guy where football isn’t just what I do, it’s a part of who I am. So when you see all the negativity, it does do something to you when you’ve never experienced that kind of stuff before. I was just walking around mad all day. I know that’s not healthy mentally or physically, but I got that under control and I was really able to dial in and do my thing.”
Like the rest of the Eagles, the Week 5 bye week changed a lot of things, and Huff and his position coach, Jeremiah Washburn, felt like he was turning the corner. He got his first half-sack in Week 6 vs. Cleveland and then got home for a sack the next week vs. the Giants. But that Giants game came with a price: Huff and Washburn said Thursday that the game at MetLife Stadium was when he tore the ligament in his wrist. Huff wasn’t on the injury report the next two weeks, but the Eagles later said he injured himself during warmups before a Week 9 home game vs. Jacksonville, a game in which he played just six snaps, almost all of them coming on the final Jaguars drive.
Huff tried to play through the injury, wearing a cast that covered his left hand and wrist, but in a position that requires striking, gripping, and the mobility of fingers, he was incapable of doing his job. Huff and the Eagles decided surgery was the best course and he was placed on injured reserve on Nov. 22.
“Playing with one hand on the D-line while being smaller than regular size, I guess, it’s a huge disadvantage,” said Huff, who stands 6-foot-3 and is 255 pounds. “It was just one thing after another.”
Huff missed the next five games. Then he got dinged up again with a shoulder injury in his first game back before playing a season-high 45 snaps in the Eagles’ meaningless regular-season finale vs. the Giants, a game in which he recorded five pressures. But he has barely played in the playoffs. He was on the field for one snap vs. the Packers and didn’t play against the Rams. He played in 12 snaps vs. Washington, most of them coming long after the Eagles knew they were bound for the bayou. There are still lingering effects from the injury, including the cast that still covers his left hand.
He might not play at all on Sunday. Brandon Graham is slated to return for the Super Bowl and Huff could be inactive. It would be a cruelly fitting finale in a season of frustrations for Huff. Graham has helped him through a lot of this season and shared with Huff his similar story of being labeled a bust in a city with a sometimes harsh fan base and media. But all of this has been an experience Huff said he’s already “flushed,” and one that has taught him a lot.
“Football is a part of who I am,” he reiterated. “It’s not just something I can detach from. When I go home, I’m still a ballplayer. When I go out to eat with my family, I’m still a ballplayer. It’s always in my mind. That’s something that I really had to work through. I’m a better player now because of it. I’m a better person now because of it.”
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Both Washburn and Eagles general manager Howie Roseman have pointed to Javon Hargrave’s 2020 season as reason to believe Huff can and will turn the corner. The Eagles signed Hargrave to a three-year deal after the defensive tackle played his first four seasons with the Steelers. Hargrave started slowly, too, in his new scheme, Washburn said. The Eagles’ defensive ends and outside linebackers coach recalled telling Hargrave after a two-sack performance vs. the Saints in Week 14 that season that he was “going to be a Pro Bowl player next season.” Hargrave did make the Pro Bowl in 2021.
“I’d love to sound like the prophecy, but I was pumped up at the moment,” Washburn said. “I think we beat the Saints as one of our four wins. Unfortunately we never got to have that moment with Bryce because of the injury.
“I think we all understand, especially with free agents, there’s an onboarding process because these guys have been trained a certain way and then they’re asked to do something completely different.”
Roseman, comparing Huff to Hargrave, said “sometimes it takes longer.”
He remains confident his investment was a good one, and the Eagles may need it to be. It’s a contract they won’t be able to move, and it’s likely edge rusher Josh Sweat, who is an impending free agent, will play elsewhere next season.
“I think the story is yet to be written on Bryce,” Roseman said. “Now, I’m stubborn. I understand that. I’m stubborn on a lot of things.
“I’ve seen it. It’s a little different for me in free agency with those kind of signings than it is maybe in draft picks in terms of you’ve seen them go against guys in the NFL and do things well. I just believe in the player.”
Huff said his confidence hasn’t wavered.
“Fans, they see the game, they see what’s going on and they automatically just assume that ‘he [stinks] now,’” Huff said. “I dominated this league for however long. I didn’t show up and just forget how to play. It’s just something I have to deal with internally, and when I’m able to go out there and show what I can do, they’re going to see it. They’re going to understand it.”
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