Eagles 2024 Training Camp Preview: The Edge Rushers

The Eagles are betting heaving on Bryce Huff this season.

Mar 14, 2024; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Bryce Huff speaks during a press conference after signing with the team. / Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA - Maybe the boldest move of Howie Roseman’s offseason was essentially swapping out the popular Haason Reddick for the ascending Bryce Huff as the centerpiece of a pass rush that disappointed last season as the sequel to the franchise record 70 sacks the defense put up in the 2022 Super Bowl season.

The tightrope trying to be traversed by Roseman would provide cost efficiency and youth with a longer shelf life if successful. Huff is perceived to be an ascending player and Reddick, who will turn 30 in September, wants to be paid top-of-the-market money after consecutive seasons playing over 900 defensive snaps when you factor in the postseason.

The Eagles eventually traded Reddick to the New York Jets for a 2026 conditional third-round pick and the veteran missed spring work in hopes of getting an adjustment to his contract.

If leading the NFL in pressure percentage as a part-time player for the Jets over the past two seasons can be sustained by Huff with an uptick in playing time, the Eagles may hit a home run.

Devil’s advocacy might point to Huff’s very talented supporting cast with the Jets and his job description, which was essentially go get the quarterback.

In Vic Fangio’s defense, Huff will need to provide pass rush, run support, and even be an occasional flat defender in coverage, all while taking on a Reddick-level workload.

It’s not hyperbole to say this course by Roseman was his most important of the offseason, far bigger than the splashier Saquon Barkley signing on offense or the remaking of the secondary with two top-40 picks in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooer DeJean.

That said, it will take a village to replace Reddick and it isn’t just about Huff.

Josh Sweat needs to get back to his 2022 Pro Bowl form on the opposite side after agreeing to a salary cut to return and second-year player Nolan Smith must improve dramatically from a rookie season hampered by a shoulder problem. 

The good news there is that the undersized Smith has gotten a bit bulkier and underwent a procedure that will hopefully solve the shoulder issue.

The fourth man in the rotation is 15-year veteran stalwart Brandon Graham, who has said this season is his last. Graham has been very effective in recent seasons on a pitch count and one counterintuitive notion is that the franchise’s all-time leader in games played could be used more this season and empty the gas tank because there is no need to think about the future. 

The depth after the penciled-in four-man rotation starts with third-round pick Jalyx Hunt, a development prospect from Houston Christian. Hunt was a late bloomer physically turning from Ivy League safety at Cornell to 6-foot-3, 253-pound menace off the edge in a small-school environment.

From there you have future signings Julian Okwara and Terrell Lewis, both former third-round picks who hadn't clicked elsewhere. Of the two Okwara is farther ahead especially after Lewis was allegedly involved in an untoward off-field incident over the summer the Eagles have ignored to date.

Patrick Johnson and Tarron Jackson are also still around but the die seems to be cast on those 2021 draft picks although Johnson can help on special teams and has also played off-ball linebacker in a pinch.

Don’t sleep on Zack Baun and Gabe Hall as well. Fangio has started Baun off at as a stacked LB but he played on the edge in New Orleans and could factor in as the Andrew Van Ginkel-like flat player Fangio likes to use.

The 6-foot-6, 295-pound Hall might be the Eagles’ most impressive undrafted player this year and played defensive tackle at Baylor. His frame is best-suited as an old-school 5-technique, however, if Fangio wants to tweak the 4i looks for run support purposes.   

Depth Chart: 

-The Eagles will use multiple fronts. The five-man (50) includes two overhang players outside two 4i techniques who bookend nose tackle Jordan Davis. The four-man pass-rushing front has the more traditional defensive looks although Reddick would typically mimic a 3-4 outside LB and Sweat would be more likely to have his hand in the dirt like a DE. For a more realistic depth chart, the labels used will be left and right overhang.  

Left Overhang - Bryce Huff; Brandon Graham; Jalyx Hunt; Patrick Johnson

Right Overhang - Josh Sweat; Nolan Smith; Julian Okwara; Tarron Jackson; Terrell Lewis 

*Zack Baun and Terrell Lewis were not used as edge players yet but that cross-training could be coming.

WHAT’S CHANGED: The major move is Huff replacing Reddick as the centerpiece of the pass-rushing plan. From there it's status quo with lower-level additions from the draft (Hunt) and futures market (Okwara and Lewis). 

COACHING: There were wholesale changes on the defensive coaching staff but one of the few holdovers was keeping on Jeremiah Washburn as the defensive ends/outside LB coach.

The son of famed pass-rushing coach and former Eagles assistant Jim Washburn, the organization has long liked the younger Washburn to the point they started him in 2019 as half-coach, half-personnel exec in an attempt to bridge those aspects of the organization more productively.

By 2020-21, Washburn bridged the Doug Pederson and Nick Sirianni eras as the senior defensive assistant for both Jim Schwartz and Jonathan Gannon before moving to his current role in 2022 when Gannon wanted more defined technique coaching between the interior defensive line and the edge rushers. 

THE CEILING: Huff takes his 20-plus pressure percentages from part-time to full-time, Sweat rebounds to 2022 levels and Smith lives up to the promise he showed at Georgia that made him the 30th overall pick in the 2023 draft.  

THE LONGSHOT: Roseman would tell you Okwara has some traits in his body and the Notre Dame product is clearly a player the Eagles want to get a look at. Okwara spent quite a bit of time in the flat defender role Fangio likes to utilize in the spring and looked comfortable from an athletic standpoint.

WHO STAYS/GOES: Huff, Sweat, Graham, Smith, and Hunt are locked in as initial 53-man players if healthy. From there the Eagles would like to find a way to keep Johnson around for his versatility and special-teams prowess as well as Okwara, who might be the real “fifth-man” on the pass rush as Hunt spends his time developing for 2025. 

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