The Philadelphia Eagles hope to start reclamation projects on Devin White and Kenny Pickett next season, two players with first-round pedigrees who fell out of favor in their original homes.
Conversely, the Eagles outlasted a slew of suitors for the prize of paying Bryce Huff $17 million per season to go get to the quarterback, a far cry from the spring of 2020 when the NFL’s 32 teams decided that the Memphis product wasn’t worthy of being drafted.
Heck, Huff wasn’t even invited to the Senior Bowl in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, or the Scouting Combine before the draft,
It takes a special kind of player to use all of that as fuel en route to forcing the same teams who wouldn’t pay $51K to him coming out of college to debate spending $51 million.
"The Jets, of course. The Giants were on the table. Commanders were on the table. Vikings, Seahawks. It was a good bit of teams," Huff replied when asked who was chasing him in free agency.
The Eagles lured him from the Jets with a three-year, $51.1 million deal.
"Just how much they wanted me,” Huff said when asked why Philadelphia outpaced the other suitors. “Did they just want to stick me out there and let me do my thing? And also the culture, the culture here is great. The Eagles are [one] of the best in the league when it comes to consistently winning and consistently having good players.
“They let [you] go out there and do your thing on Sunday."
What Huff did for the Jets was terrorize opposing QBs with an impressive array of speed, get-off, and relentlessness last season, finishing with 10 sacks and a league-leading 21.8 percent pressure rate over a career-high 480 defensive snaps.
The next step is becoming a three-down player and that’s where projection comes into it.
Huff won’t turn 26 until next month and his career rep count is just 1,303, meaning there is plenty of tread left.
“I feel like I’m capable of taking on a bigger role and really doing as much as I can to help us win on Sundays,” Huff said.
While the bank account ballooned for Huff, the chip on his shoulder remains.
“Just the fact that you came out and not a single team thought you were worthy of a draft pick, it kind of just stays in the back of your mind,” Huff admitted.
In the forefront of that mind is now the loyalty to the Eagles for finally believing in what Huff has worked for.
“It just means a lot to me, just knowing that I came in playing for pennies, so to speak, in comparison with other guys at my position,” Huff said. “And finally being able to sign a deal and solidify myself as one of the top at my position group is really cool.”
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