Bryce Huff 'wanted a trade' away from Eagles way earlier than he got it

After a failed first season with the Eagles, EDGE Bryce Huff was traded to the 49ers in June just one season into a blockbuster three-year free agent deal worth more than $51 million.

But the trade apparently came much later than Huff had wanted.

According to NFL.com, Huff said in a recent podcast interview with Brad Graham on "The SFNiners" that he wanted out "fairly early on" after realizing in training camp that he wasn't the best fit for Vic Fangio's defense.

NFL.com aggregated the full quote from the podcast:

"If I'm being 100% honest with you, I wanted a trade like fairly early on," he said. "And just 'cause of how things went in Philly, I knew pretty early on it wasn't a fit. ...

 

"There's a plethora of things that went down. I don't wanna get into specifics. Being in the league for five years, I kinda knew what it felt like to be in a good situation. ... I kind of knew where it was headed fairly early on into the season, probably even training camp if I'm being honest."

Huff had just 2.5 sacks last year and played just 285 snaps – 39 percent of the defense. Interestingly, Fangio had covered up for Huff when asked why it didn't work out. 

In a spring press conference during OTAs, Fangio said Huff had been improving until the hand injury that required a procedure and sidelined him for five games from Weeks 12-16 set him back.

Fangio never mentioned Huff's fit or place in the pecking order as a reason for Huff not fulfilling expectations.

"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. It wasn't going good because he was reluctant to use his hand," Fangio said on June 3. "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.

"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, Nolan [Smith] got more snaps, Jalyx [Hunt] got more snaps and things evolve, but I think he'll do fine in San Francisco."

Keep in mind that Brandon Graham wasn't supposed to be a good "fit" for Chip Kelly's 3-4 defense when he was asked to move from hand-in-dirt 4-3 defensive end to outside linebacker with occasional drop-and-cover responsibilities, but Graham made it work. Fit isn't always a requisite for being able to play well.

Anyway, Huff is reunited in San Francisco with defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who was his head coach when Huff broke out for 10 sacks with the Jets in his fourth season after going undrafted out of Memphis. Huff is also back in a wide-9 defensive front, which Niners DL coach Kris Kocurek likes to run, especially on obvious passing downs. 

The Eagles received a fifth-round pick in next year's NFL Draft that could become a fourth if Huff reaches some specific benchmarks for the 49ers. The Eagles are projected to start third-year pro Nolan Smith and second-year pro Jalyx Hunt at the edges but added some depth pieces in free agency by signing Azeez Ojulari and Josh Uche.

Both sides have clearly moved on.