Thanks to the brilliance of their youthful secondary and one of the league’s most potent pass rushes, the New York Jets established one of the greatest defenses in the NFL. Regretfully, it appears that this team may lose a lot of players in NFL free agency.
With one of the strongest passing defenses in the league, New York concluded the regular season with the fourth-highest pressure rate (26.5%) in the league, second-highest hurry rate (10.1%), and sixth-best sack rate (8.4%).
Although the team’s success is mostly attributed to players like Quinnen Williams, Jon Franklin-Myers, Sauce Gardner, and D.J. Reed, a fan favorite and coach favorite on this Jets defense seems to be on his way out.
Although he doesn’t think it’s a given that the Jets will lose edge rusher Bryce Huff this offseason, Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic tweeted on Sunday that things seem to be moving in that direction. As he points out, given Huff’s growth with New York, losing the rookie pass rusher would be a huge letdown.
In 2020, Huff became an undrafted free agent and joined the NFL. On May 6, 2020, the 6-foot-3 edge rusher, who had to earn a position in the NFL as an unknown athlete, signed with New York. Unexpectedly, he reached the 53-man roster during his first season and shortly after, he made his NFL debut.
One of the greatest draft-and-develop success stories for New York is the Memphis alum. In his debut season, he was awarded 295 defensive snaps. Huff only participated in 23 games in total between 2021 and 2022, but he continuously demonstrated growth and gained a significant position on the Jets’ defense this past season.
2024 cap space for the New York Jets is $12.756 million.
Sadly for New York, Huff’s progress was noticed by other NFL clubs. Huff led the team in pressures and had his first season with ten sacks in a contract year. Now that he’s established himself as one of the Jets’ defense’s top players, Huff seems ready to cash in on an NFL free agency deal that may change his life.