Things just haven’t worked out this season.
The New York Jets traded for Haason Reddick and he hasn’t reported. While Bryce Huff has struggled with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Jets reporter Nick Faria of the Pro Football Network and Athlon Sports proposed that the two teams should simply swap pass rush talents one-for-one.
Faria joined me on my radio show, “The Manchild Show with Boy Green”, and went into even more detail on why this trade could make a lot of sense.
Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic also shared that sentiment on social media saying, “Eagles fans don’t seem to want Bryce Huff. Haason Reddick doesn’t want the Jets. I have an idea…”
Huff Has Struggled Since Signing His Big Money Contract
The former Memphis product made NFL history this offseason. When he signed his three-year deal for $51.1 million with $34 million of that in total guarantees. That was the largest deal ever given to a non-quarterback former undrafted free agent in history.
With that kind of financial commitment, comes massive expectations.
Through the first two games of the season, it’s fair to say Huff hasn’t lived up to the hype.
Huff has appeared in 48% of the defensive snaps for the Eagles, the most amount of snaps he has played since 2021. With that playing time, Huff has registered just one assisted tackle.
No sacks, no quarterback hits, nothing. According to Pro Football Reference, Huff has a 66.7% missed tackle rate in two starts this season.
That is a jarring number. The highest missed tackle rate he has ever had in his career was in 2023 with 12.1%, now it has jumped up exponentially.NFL analyst Shane Haff poked fun at Huff being “stonewalled by a TE for a solid 5-6 seconds” against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football in Week 2.
“If you just watch Bryce Huff every play you’ll notice quickly that the eagles flushed 50 million dollars down the toilet,” a social media user said.
“It’s almost like Bryce Huff’s stats were inflated by beating a few scrubs in a contract year and it tricked a large majority into thinking he was the next Haason Reddick. Who could’ve ever seen this coming,” an Eagles fan account said.
Reddick Is a Better Player Right Now But…
There is a reason the Jets were willing to make this non-direct swap this offseason. Huff walked in free agency. The Jets immediately pivoted to a trade with the Eagles for Reddick.
Huff is talented, young, and was coming off of a career year. However, the sack production was lacking consistently.
Reddick on the other hand has had four straight double-digit sack seasons. He is considered one of the best pass rushers in the league. The Jets with Aaron Rodgers, a 40-year-old quarterback, are a win now team.
The switch on paper made sense for the Jets. However now that we are where we are, a pivot wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
The perfect solution is Reddick reporting to the team and playing out the final year of his contract. So far he hasn’t been willing to do that and the Jets haven’t been willing to make any concessions for Reddick.
Huff hasn’t performed for the Eagles, but the Jets know him better than any team. If he were to return to the squad, you’d think he could find his former glory on a talented defense.The likelihood of this sort of trade actually happening seems unlikely, but it’s interesting to speculate about. We’ve all had moments in our life where we made a decision and we immediately wanted to take it back. The Jets and Eagles would probably like a do-over if they had the chance.
