The Philadelphia Eagles' struggles in the pass rush have been well-documented all season. Things got so bad after Za'Darius Smith's retirement that they had to beg Brandon Graham to return to football with the hopes of giving the anemic pass rush a boost. Through the first eight weeks of the season, the Eagles have only 16 sacks and rank in the bottom half of the league in most pass defense metrics.
With the Eagles having entered their bye and the trade deadline right around the corner, many are wondering whether GM Howie Roseman will make a move to address this obvious need. Yet, it's very difficult to find difference-making pass rushers at this stage of the season as no team is trying to move on from quality players in a position of huge importance.
Eagles Must Be Regretting the Bryce Huff Trade
That is why the Eagles' decision to trade Bryce Huff for the return they got looks even worse in hindsight. Huff's tenure with Philadelphia was rocky, leading to his eventual falling out of favor and benching. Although he's currently plagued by a hamstring injury, his 2025 performance with the San Francisco 49ers suggests that the Eagles may have moved on too quickly and not gotten enough of a return.
Huff has already surpassed his production from the entire 2024 campaign in seven games so far. He has four sacks, six QB hits, and six tackles for loss while playing 54% of his team's defensive snaps. Last season with the Eagles, he had 2.5 sacks, three QB hits, and three tackles for loss in 12 games. He currently has an 85.4 defensive grade and an 85.9 pass rush grade on Pro Football Focus. His defensive grade is higher than all Eagles defenders on the roster this season.
If he had stayed with the Eagles, Huff was probably not going to play at this level. The relationship had become too strained, and he proved to be not that good a fit. At the same time, the Eagles only got back a conditional fifth-round pick that will upgrade to a fourth-round pick if Huff gets eight sacks. If the Eagles tried to trade for a defender of Huff's caliber now, they would have to give up a pick in the first three rounds of the draft just to get their phone call answered.
The Eagles had signed Huff to a three-year, $51 million deal in the 2024 offseason, but could only keep him around for one year. While many Eagles fans blamed Huff for the signing not working, any player-team relationship is a two-way street. It's clear that Philadelphia couldn't utilize Huff properly and maximize his potential. Now, this mistake has come back to bite them as they desperately try to get their pass rush going.