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Why Bryce Huff is the 49ers' Biggest Enigma of 2025

If Huff can recreate his performance for 2023 when he played for the Jets and recorded 10 sacks, the 49ers will be extremely pleased.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 13, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Bryce Huff (0) against the Cleveland Browns at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Oct 13, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Bryce Huff (0) against the Cleveland Browns at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers have a bunch of enigmas on their roster.

Is Christian McCaffrey still an elite player? Can Trent Williams stay healthy for more than 10 games at his age? When will Brandon Aiyuk make a full recovery from a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus?

But the 49ers' biggest enigma according to NFL.com is their newest defensive end, Bryce Huff.

"The sixth-year pro has teased scouts with his explosive athleticism and pass-rushing prowess," writes NFL.com's Bucky Brooks. "In 2023, Huff looked like an ascending star after notching 10 sacks and leading the NFL with a 21.8% pressure rate (min. 250 pass rushes, per Next Gen Stats) during his final campaign with the Jets.

"Though he flopped with the Eagles after inking a three-year, $51 million deal as a marquee free agent last offseason, a trade to the 49ers reunites the edge rusher with his former coach (Robert Saleh), which could help him regain his swagger in San Francisco. Given a chance to play opposite a premier pass rusher who commands extra attention in Nick Bosa, Huff could remind the football world of his disruptive ability this season."

If Huff can recreate his performance for 2023 when he played for the Jets and recorded 10 sacks, the 49ers will be extremely pleased. Unfortunately for the 49ers, that was his only season in which he had more than 3.5 sacks, so it's not a given that he will produce for them. That's why the Eagles are paying more than half of his salary this season. The 49ers are merely taking a flier on him.

Huff will play only in passing situations for the 49ers because he's a bad run defender. Still, he has a chance to give the 49ers' pass rush the explosiveness it desperately needs.

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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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