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When news broke that the Philadelphia Eagles traded Bryce Huff to the San Francisco 49ers for a fifth-round pick that could become a fourth-round pick, depending on if conditions are met, it turned the City of Brotherly Love into a certified party.
Originally signed to a big-money free agent contract to become the ace edge rusher in Vic Fangio's scheme, Huff's lone season in Philadelphia will go down as one of the worst in recent memory, to the point where he was a healthy scratch in the Super Bowl despite having a contract worth more than those of Brandon Graham, Nolan Smith, and Jalyx Hunt combined.
What went wrong? How did Huff go from one of the most efficient pass rushers in the NFL to a player fans actively wanted to drive to the airport? Well, in his media availability session at the Eagles OTAs, Vic Fangio broke the situation down, explaining what went wrong down the stretch for the one-and-done rusher.
“Well, I think the one thing is, he was getting better, and when he hurt his hand, he tried to play with it for a couple weeks,” Fangio explained. “It wasn’t going good because he was reluctant to use his hand. Then when they operated on it, he had to play with a big cast on his hand, which basically rendered his hand useless and then rendered his arm useless because you can’t use your hand. That really had an effect on him.”
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“We just came out of draft season and the first thing you see when they put a guy’s name up on the board is his hand size, arm length. Well, he lost all that. While he was out, [OLB] Nolan [Smith] got more snaps, [OLB] Jalyx [Hunt] got more snaps, and things evolve, but I think he’ll do fine in San Francisco.”
Come in from the New York Jets, where he was afforded a chance to largely rush on obvious passing downs, Huff and Fangio fundamentally disagreed on how he should rush the passer, with the former wanting to place both hands in the ground for maximum get off, while the latter wanted to have him deploy from a two-point stance to better help against the run.
While Huff did try to do things Fangio's way somewhat, a broken hand basically cost him a chance to grow into the role down the stretch, to the point where the Eagles sent him to the bench on the way to their Super Bowl run.
Will Huff work out in San Francisco? Only time will tell, as he will be reuniting with the coach who got the most out of him professionally, Robert Saleh. But for the Eagles? Getting a mid-round pick for a non-player is a major win, especially considering the salary cap savings that come along with it.
