In Roob's Observations: Can the Eagles salvage Bryce Huff? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Is Bryce Huff salvageable? How long will it take Jason Peters to make it into the Hall of Famer? And who’s the last player the Eagles drafted in the first three rounds who never played a snap in the NFL?
We’ll take on these and some other pressing questions in this week’s edition of Roob’s 10 Random Offseason Observations. We might even sneak in some long jump chat!
1. Maybe I’m delusional, but I actually think there’s a chance Bryce Huff can be a functional contributor next year. A couple things. This is a guy who has produced in the NFL – 10 sacks last year with the Jets. He seemed to have trouble picking up Vic Fangio’s scheme, but he was starting to turn the corner when he broke his wrist. He had 2 ½ sacks in his last six games before having surgery, and he played a couple of those games after getting hurt. Not exactly Clyde Simmons stuff here, but he was showing up and starting to look comfortable in a new scheme. And the analytics aren’t awful with Huff. Pro Football Focus had him with a 68.3 grade, which ranked 44th of 116 edge rushers who played at least 250 snaps. You always take those grades with a grain of salt, but there could be something there. Huff was never the same after the surgery and he barely played in the postseason – 13 snaps, 12 of them in mop-up duty at the end of the NFC Championship Game. In the likely event Brandon Graham retires and Josh Sweat signs elsewhere, the Eagles will need Huff to pay off to some degree on that three-year, $51 million contract and I still think there’s a shot that happens. Or maybe I’m just nuts.
2A. The last 40 players the Eagles have drafted have played at least one game for the Eagles. That’s every player they’ve taken in the 2020 through 2024 drafts. A few of them only played one or two games in an Eagles uniform – Casey Toohill, Prince Tega Wanogho, Trevor Keegan, Dylan McMahon, JaCoby Stevens – but all 40 have played. The last player the Eagles drafted who never got into a game for them? That would be quarterback Clayton Thorson, their 5th-round pick (and final pick) in 2020. He never got into an NFL game.
2B. The last player the Eagles drafted in the first four rounds who never got into an NFL game? That would be Matt Patchan, their 3rd-round pick out of Miami in 1988. Patchan’s son, also Matt, was signed by the Bucs after playing at Boston College. He also never played in the NFL.
3. I’m not sure there’s any way to predict how good a play caller will be. I expected Chip Kelly to be very good, but he really wasn’t. I didn’t think Doug Pederson would be exceptional at it, but he was one of the best I’ve seen. I actually expected Nick Sirianni to have a flair for play calling, but he was terrible, as we all saw the first month and a half of 2021. Shane Steichen? I just didn’t know. It’s such a unique function and so much goes into doing it well. Steichen had a rare ability to get into defensive coaches’ minds and understand what they were thinking and what they wanted to do next, and that helped him become an exceptional play caller here the second half of 2021 and 2022. Which brings us to Kevin Patullo. He’s a very sharp offensive mind, he knows offense, he knows the personnel here and I like the fact that Sirianni let him do some situational play calling along the way, so this won’t be entirely new. And I would think if you’ve been around someone for seven years – and Sirianni and Patullo have been together since 2018 with the Colts – you’d have a pretty good sense of what they’re good at, and you’d know if they didn’t have what it takes to call plays at a high level. There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic about Patullo. His history with Sirianni, his relationship with Jalen Hurts and the other offensive guys, his familiarity with other NFC East teams. But you really do never know until you see it on game day.
4. Now that Jason Peters has finally stepped away from the playing field after 20 years, nine Pro Bowls and six 1st– or 2nd-team all-pros, it’s time to consider his Hall of Fame chances. Peters is virtually a lock to eventually get in, but it could take a while. New voting rules that limit the number of inductees each year have made it tougher for a guy like Peters to get inducted in his first few years of eligibility. Peters was as good as any left tackle of his generation but just two 1st-team all-pros could hurt him. That’s the stuff voters look at. But he did make the team of the decade for 2010-2019, and that’s huge. I think Peters will be helped by his backstory – starting his career as an undrafted practice squad tight end. Has any former practice squad member ever made the Hall of Fame? No undrafted player has ever made more Pro Bowls than Peters. Since Peters didn’t play in 2024, he’ll be eligible for the Hall in 2029. That’s the same year as Jason Kelce, Aaron Donald, Philip Rivers and Julio Jones. There’s going to be a glut after that as guys like Travis Kelce, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Patrick Peterson, Zack Martin, Chris Jones, Mike Evans, Trent Williams, Bobby Wagner, T.J. Watt, Von Miller, George Kittle, Khalil Mack and Lane Johnson retire and become eligible. It might take a year where there aren’t a bunch of all-time no-brainer 1st-ballot candidates, but I do think eventually Peters’ time will come. It took Eric Allen 19 years to finally get the recognition he deserved. I don’t think it will take Peters that long, but it could be a while.
4A. What if Kelce, Peters and Johnson all get into the Hall of Fame? Then Jeff Stoutland should get in. He never will, but he damn-well should.
5. I’ll be surprised if the Eagles don’t take a tight end somewhere fairly early in the draft, and it’s really remarkable how much success they’ve had drafting tight ends, not just under Howie Roseman but well before he got here. In the last 35 years, the Eagles have drafted five tight ends in the first three rounds – Keith Jackson 13th overall in 1988, Jason Dunn in the second round in 1996, L.J. Smith in the second round in 2003, Zach Ertz in the second round in 2013 and Dallas Goedert in the second round in 2018. Jackson set an NFL rookie tight end record that stood until 2023 with 81 catches and made three Pro Bowls, Dunn became an elite blocker and played 12 seasons, Smith wasn’t elite but did have over 2,500 yards and 19 touchdowns in a seven-year career, Ertz is seventh in history among tight ends with 579 catches and Goedert has the 8th-most postseason catches ever by a tight end. And that doesn’t even consider Brent Celek, a 5th-round pick in 2007, who had over 5,000 yards in his 11-year career, all with the Eagles. If the Eagles do draft a tight end – and with Goedert turning 30 last month and unsigned beyond 2025 they need to – he’ll likely be a good one.
6. The last Hall of Famer to finish his career with the Eagles was Richard Dent in 1997. Before that Art Monk in 1995, James Lofton in 1993 and Claude Humphrey in 1981.
7. The Eagles scored 95 points in the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl combined. The last time they scored 95 points in a two-game stretch in the regular season was 1950, when they beat the Cards 45-7 at Comiskey Park and the Rams 56-20 at Shibe Park. The only other team to score 95 points in a two-game postseason stretch was the 1991 Bills, who beat the Dolphins 44-34 in the AFC semifinal round and the Raiders 51-3 in the AFC Championship Game, both in Orchard Park, N.Y.
8A. Jalen Hurts has completed 70 percent of his passes in five postseason games. Only five quarterbacks have had more 70 percent games in their entire postseason career: Patrick Mahomes (9), Drew Brees (7), Tom Brady (7), Troy Aikman (6) and Josh Allen (6).
8B. Hurts goes into 2025 having completed 70 percent of his passes in three straight games. Only Matt Ryan (5 straight), Warren Moon (4) and Joe Montana (4) have had longer postseason streaks at 70 percent or higher.
8C. Hurts’ 66.8 percent career postseason completion percentage is 5th-highest in NFL history (minimum 150 attempts), behind only Nick Foles (68.1), Mahomes (67.7), Ryan (67.5) and Joe Burrow (67.3).
9. Chauncey Gardner has more interceptions than any other Eagle over the last 10 years. He’s played 28 games.
10. Do you ever wonder stuff like what Eagle player had the best career long jump mark before he entered the NFL? No? I wonder stuff like that so I looked it up. And, yeah, Marquis Goodwin jumped 27-8 ½ in Baie Mahault, France, in 2016, but he never actually played for the Eagles so he doesn’t count. The actual answer is James Loftin, who jumped 27-0 in Westwood, Calif., in the summer of 1978 and as we noted above finished his Hall of Fame career with the Eagles in 1993. OK, now you’re wondering who was second, right? Remember Ron Johnson? He was a wide receiver who spent 1985 through 1989 with the Eagles, and as a freshman at Long Beach State he jumped 25-7 ½ in a meet in Long Beach in 1979. Now you know.
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