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Why the 49ers are Banking on a Bounce-Back Season from Bryce Huff

When the 49ers traded for Bryce Huff, it seemed they were taking a flier on the former Eagles' failed pass rusher.
Grant Cohn|
Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Bryce Huff (47) speaks to the media following a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Bryce Huff (47) speaks to the media following a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

When the 49ers traded for Bryce Huff, it seemed they were taking a flier on the former Eagles' failed pass rusher.

Now, it seems they're banking on him to have a major bounce-back season.

That's because first-round pick Mykel Williams missed most of the offseason practices with a hamstring injury and Yetur Gross-Matos missed all of the offseason practices with an injury of his own. If those two injury-prone players keep getting hurt, the 49ers will need Huff to be more than a mere rotational player.

That's why Pro Football Network says Huff's addition is the 49ers' biggest development of OTAs.

"Coming off a 10-sack season in 2023 with the Jets, Bryce Huff signed with the Eagles last offseason but fell far short of expectations," writes PFN's Jacob Infante. "That resulted in his trade to the San Francisco 49ers just before the start of minicamp.

"If Kyle Shanahan’s comments to the media are any indication, the 49ers have high hopes that Huff will bounce back. The trade was relatively low-risk for San Francisco, having only given up a mid-round pick for him. If he does bounce back, he would form a dangerous pass-rushing duo opposite Nick Bosa."

The problem with Huff is that he's terrible against the run, so the 49ers would be smart to use him only on downs in which they know the opponent will pass. But those downs are becoming more sparse as teams go for it on fourth down more frequently. The willingness to go for it on fourth down turns third down into a potential running down, just like second down. That's why the 49ers drafted so many run defenders this season.

We'll see if the 49ers can play to Huff's strengths or if they'll be forced to use him more than they should.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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