When the Eagles signed edge rusher Bryce Huff for $51.1 million over three years, the idea was that he would have a much bigger role than he had with the Jets, where he had 10 sacks last year but played just 42 percent of the snaps.
He did play more Friday. But 45 percent of the snaps is not what anybody expected.
It’s only one game and it was played on a slippery field that made life tough for edge rushers, but Huff played only 30 of 66 defensive snaps in his Eagles debut Friday against the Packers.
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Huff’s stat line showed only one assisted tackle – on a nine-yard Josh Jacobs run in the third quarter - in a game the Eagles won 34-29 in São Paulo.
Asked how close Huff is to becoming the every-down player the Eagles envisioned – and paid for – Vic Fangio didn’t exactly give Huff a ringing endorsement.
“He's improving,” defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Wednesday. “Obviously we all had a play or two (that could have been better), I had a call or two that could have been better. But he's improving in that area.”
According to Pro Football Focus, Huff had a 0.0 pass-rush productivity rate, which means he had no sacks, hits or hurries on his 16 pass-rush snaps.
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There were 90 edge rushers who played at least 10 pass-rush snaps in Week 1, and Huff was one of five with a 0.0 pass rush rating.
Sweat – a Pro Bowler in 2021 - played 41 snaps Friday, the 36-year-old Graham played 32, Smith played 31 and Huff just 30.
Asked what Huff has to do to play more, Fangio said, “You know, just separate himself from the other guys.”
All of this might not be so concerning if it wasn’t for the way last year ended. In 2022, Eagles edge rushers had 38 sacks in 17 games. Last year, they had 16 in the first nine games, then 4.0 in the last eight.
That means Eagles edges have four sacks in the last nine games – three by Reddick, who's long gone. Graham had the other.
On Friday, Josh Sweat was the Eagles’ highest-rated edge rusher – 33rd of 90 with an 8.0 rating. But he’s still gone nine straight games without a sack. Graham and Nolan Smith were a bit lower.
Those four combined for no sacks and two hurries, by Sweat and Graham.
And while the slippery field is a built-in excuse, Fangio only partially used it.
“We didn't pass rush good enough overall in the game,” he said. “Did the field have something to do with that? Yeah, it obviously did. But overall we could get better there.”
As for Graham, he and 38-year-old Calais Campbell of the Dolphins are the only defensive players in the NFL 36 or older to play more than 15 snaps in Week 1. And B.G. is the oldest Eagle to get on the field on defense since Kimo von Oelhoffen, who played briefly for the Eagles in 2007 and was a few months older than B.G. is now.
Why would a 36-year-old in his 15th year who’s planning to retire at the end of the season get more snaps than the $51 million free agent?
“Brandon is still a good player, and I've told him several times, he's not on any ceremonial last-year retirement parade,” Fangio said. “He's going to play. He's still playing good.”
B.G. only played 32 snaps twice last year. Fangio said don’t make too much about the snap counts because all four rotational guys were between 30 and 41.
“I think most of our guys, if you look at it, we had five guys up and they all played about similar rep counts,” he said. “We're just rolling those guys.”
But it is surprising and disappointing that a guy the Eagles paid $37.5 million guaranteed played less than all the others. The good news? They all played more than Reddick, whose 2024 snap count total is zero and counting.