Bryce Huff played 27 run defense snaps the first two weeks of the season and the Eagles allowed 6.7 yards per carry.
He played five run defense snaps Sunday and they allowed 3.1 yards per carry.
Was that the only reason the run defense improved? Of course not.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Was it a factor? You know it.
Huff played a season-low 18 snaps in the win over the Saints Sunday, five on running downs and 13 on passing downs. That’s his fewest snaps since he had 16 in a Jets loss to the Dolphins in Week 3 last year.
It’s his fewest snaps ever in a game he started.
Huff’s 2024 Pro Football Focus run defense grade of 48.6 ranks 79th of 93 edge rushers who’ve played at least 25 run defense snaps this year. In his four years with the Jets, he was rarely asked to play on clear running downs. The Eagles paid him $51 million to be a full-time player, but three weeks into the season he no longer is.
NFL
His pass-rush grade of 56.8 is nominally higher but still ranks 82nd out of 107 edge rushers who’ve played at least 25 passing downs.
Overall, PFF ranks Huff 86th of 108 pass rushers who’ve played at least 50 defensive snaps so far this year.
Which is why retirement-bound 36-year-old Brandon Graham played 35 snaps Sunday – nearly twice as many as Huff. And played extremely well. Josh Sweat (34) and Nolan Smith (21) also played more than Huff, who has no solo tackles, one assisted tackle, no tackles for loss, no sacks, no forced fumbles and no quarterback pressures through three games.
Out of 178 edge rushers and outside linebackers – Stathead doesn’t distinguish between them – who have played at least 50 snaps so far this year, Huff is one of only two with no sacks, no solo tackles and no quarterback hits. The other is the Raiders’ Janarius Robinson.
What’s next for Huff?
“Just keep plugging away,” Nick Sirianni said Monday, a day after the Eagles beat the Saints to improve to 2-1. “Just keep going. Keep working hard every day. I really do believe sacks and pressures come in waves.
"When one guy gets hot, they start rotating the slide the other way or giving help the other way and then the other guy gets hot. And so it's just time, and I’ve got a lot of faith in Bryce and the things that he can do, obviously that's why he's here and I'm excited for the time where he's going to have a big-time game.”
It's not just Huff. None of the Eagles’ edge rushers has a sack this year and in fact the Eagles haven’t gotten a sack from an edge since Week 13 last year, when Haason Reddick had two.
That’s seven straight games without a sack from an edge, and that’s the longest streak since sacks became an official stat in 1982.
Overall, the Eagles rank 29th in sacks, with four in 93 opposing drop-backs.
Huff had 10 sacks last year with the Jets, all from Week 5 on.
“I know he puts the work in,” Sirianni said. “I know he's ultra-talented. And I've got no doubt in my mind that he's going to continue to get better and have a good impact on this football team.”