Thumbs up or down on the Eagles off-loading Bryce Huff? Our writers weigh in.

The Eagles finalized a trade earlier this week to ship free-agent bust Bryce Huff to the San Francisco 49ers. Here’s how our beat writers evaluate the move:

I’m going to forgo giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, but I’ll analyze the Huff trade, which jettisoned the defensive end to the 49ers for a conditional fifth-round draft selection. There’s more to the swap than just a player for a pick. The Eagles had to eat some of Huff’s salary and still have significant cash and salary cap charges on the books for the foreseeable future.

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Inking the former New York Jet to a three-year, $51.1 million contract last offseason obviously was a mistake. The Eagles made a projection based on their evaluation, which simply was way off base. Huff had one year of high production as a situational edge rusher in a scheme different from the one to which he would be transitioning in Philadelphia. But even a cursory look at his 10 sacks in 2023 showed that he benefited from the strength of the Jets’ other defensive linemen and that he sometimes got to the quarterback when unblocked or after only beating a tight end.

The greatest projection, though, was Huff as a run defender in Vic Fangio’s five- and four-man fronts. He simply couldn’t consistently execute the technique. Huff had other obstacles in Philly — a wrist injury being one — but it got so bad that he was a healthy scratch in the Super Bowl to make room for a one-armed 36-year-old (Brandon Graham). Of course, it didn’t end up mattering. The Eagles still won a title, which showed just how impressive a job Howie Roseman did in building last season’s roster.

But it was clear that Roseman needed to move on from the Huff error, even though he said his story had “yet to be written” before the Super Bowl. The general manager, to his credit, has gotten much better at not hanging onto mistakes for the sake of pride. In this case, it was easier than it was with, say, Carson Wentz, but the Eagles’ recent success in the draft and in managing the cap allows for the financial ramifications of getting virtually nothing from a player who will make a guaranteed $34 million.

As part of the trade, the Eagles will pay out $9.05 million of Huff’s 2025 compensation as a bonus. The original structure of the deal gave Roseman flexibility to restructure the contract, so there isn’t as much immediate pain. The trade also was processed after June 1, which will result in the Eagles taking on $4.94 million in dead money and saving $2.4 million for this season. They will defer $16.6 million to next season. Ouch. All told, they will pay $26.05 million, with the 49ers taking on the remaining $7.95 million of the guaranteed figure.

I don’t yet know what marks Huff has to reach to make the fifth-rounder a fourth, but we can assume most of it is tied to sacks. He could thrive in Robert Saleh’s defense as he did when the San Fran defensive coordinator was Jets head coach. He’s essentially in a contract year. But even if the Eagles get a 2026 fourth-rounder in return — they have a whopping 13 picks next draft — this was not a result the team was anticipating. They have promising young edge rushers in Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt, but the group isn’t as strong on paper as it was a year ago with Josh Sweat now in Arizona and Graham retired. Azeez Ojulari and Josh Uche are relatively cheap free agents and could pan out. But the ramifications of missing on Huff could be felt this season, if not last.

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I was tempted to give this a thumbs-down just on principle. Having to trade a player for a “mid-round” draft pick one season after signing him to a three-year, $51.1 million deal is a pretty terrible result.

But this exercise is about analyzing the move the Eagles just made, not the one they made last offseason. Signing Huff turned out to be a bad move, albeit one that mattered little in the grand scheme of things. The Eagles had a $51 million healthy scratch and won the Super Bowl before halftime.

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Roseman has built a pretty good football team. It just won a Super Bowl two seasons after losing another in a shootout. Roster makers are allowed to make a mistake here and there, and if the Eagles hadn’t hit on so many other players and decisions, it’d be a lot easier to be harsh when judging the Huff ordeal in its totality.

But if the Eagles were going to admit their mistake and move on, then getting a mid-round pick is not the worst result. It’s a pretty decent one. Especially considering that Huff agreed to a contract restructure to help facilitate his exit. The Eagles, aided in part because they have so many difference-makers on rookie deals, aren’t suffering a catastrophic financial blow after off-loading an expensive and unproductive player. That’s enough for a thumbs-up from me.

It was becoming increasingly clear that Huff wasn’t going to be a fit with the Eagles this season. The 27-year-old edge rusher was limited by a wrist injury in 2024 and struggled to get on the field when he was healthy. With Smith and Hunt making strides and Ojulari and Uche’s upsides as situational pass rushers, it didn’t seem like Huff would have much of a role in Philadelphia if he stuck around.

Parting ways with Huff makes sense. Still, his signing was a failure, so I can’t give this situation a thumbs-up. Huff was the Eagles’ biggest defensive free-agent addition last offseason. His $17.03 million average annual value ranks 17th among NFL edge rushers. The only player in the top 20 in AAV at edge rusher who had fewer sacks than Huff (2½), was Miami’s Bradley Chubb, who did not play in 2024.

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Yes, the Eagles needed to sign a veteran edge rusher entering 2024. Looking for an extension, Haason Reddick was traded to the New York Jets, and Smith remained a question mark after a relatively quiet rookie season.

In hindsight, it’s easy to say that Huff was the wrong free-agent addition. But would Roseman have done anything differently in the process that prompted him to sign Huff? Was the wrist injury truly at the root of Huff’s failure in Philadelphia? Or was something else at play? I still have more questions than answers.

Let me be clear from the outset, the Eagles’ decision to sign Huff to a multiyear, big-money contract should be evaluated separately from the choice to off-load him about 15 months later. The signing itself obviously didn’t hinder the team from winning the Super Bowl with Huff a healthy scratch, but the whiff could have ripple effects in coming years and deserves a thumbs-down in hindsight as a result.

Speaking of those ripple effects, the Eagles’ edge-rusher rotation requires plenty of projection at this point in the offseason. Even if Smith and Hunt carry strong playoff showings into next year, the current group would need quality snaps from a cluster of players headlined by free-agency additions Ojulari and Uche. Perhaps the Eagles can add more at that spot before the start of the regular season, but Huff’s departure doesn’t exactly help the state of that room.

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Still, if you had asked me a few weeks ago about the Eagles’ chances of getting actual draft compensation back in a deal for the displaced edge rusher, I would have said a conditional mid-round pick was optimistic.

There’s a world where Huff rediscovers himself in a 49ers defense led by his old coach, Saleh, but it was clear the environment with the Eagles was going to be an obstacle for him. With that reality in mind, Roseman being able to cut his losses while gaining cap flexibility is a positive result, even if it means the Eagles remain relatively thin at a premium position.