Niners Nation
The Niners made a major trade earlier this week.
The San Francisco 49ers made one of their bigger splashes of the offseason this week by trading a 2026 conditional fifth-round pick for Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Bryce Huff.
Huff, 27, had a down year in 2024, accumulating just 2.5 sacks in 12 games for the Eagles after reaching double-digits during a breakout campaign in 2023 with the New York Jets.
Now, he’s reunited with former head coach Robert Saleh in San Francisco and will get an opportunity to do what he does best: rush the passer.
“Bryce has mainly, throughout his career, been an edge guy in passing situations,” defensive line coach Kris Kocurek said earlier this week. “So that allows you to use the versatility that you have in your room in various different ways. Bryce can also bump down as a spinner, stand-up dude.
“It allows you to have more moving parts across the front, allows you to slide your versatile guys around, move them around, put them in different spots, locate matchup issues that, from a protection standpoint or a personnel standpoint, that we can try to exploit with different guys.”
While Huff himself may not be as versatile, it allows the room as a whole to be more versatile. For example, on passing downs, if Huff slides into the edge spot, Nick Bosa or Mykel Williams (or even both) could kick in and rush over the guard, exploiting a favorable matchup there.
Overall, it can create matchup issues when one presents itself, while also adding depth in the room and giving players key rest.
Of course, there are serious questions about whether Huff can return to his old form in 2025. While the cost to acquire the defensive end wasn’t a high price, it’s clear the 49ers expect something from the 27-year-old this season.
While he did have a down year in 2024, Huff apparently dealt with a wrist injury that defensive line coach Kris Kocurek believed derailed his season.
“[Huff] had a wrist injury about mid-season that I think kind of derailed his progression with him being a stand-up player,” Kocurek revealed. “But I thought he was really coming along, and I thought he was getting better within his role of being more of a stand-up outside linebacker. You could see the progression of getting better.
“And then, I think the wrist injury kind of set him back, and it’s hard when you’re progressing, and then, all of a sudden, you get an injury that kind of stunts that growth. But you still saw a good player on tape. You still saw a player that could win one-on-one.”
So, what role do the 49ers expect Huff to play? After all, he’s never seen more than 51 percent of a team’s defensive snaps and was mainly a pass-rush specialist during his breakout season with the Jets in 2023.
Well, Kocurek wants the defensive end to go after the quarterback, simple as that. He and the 49ers...
