Did Eagles Send a Message to Their Big-Money Pass Rusher?

PHILADELPHIA – Bryce Huff said last week he was good to go the distance against the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, after getting an early snap, he remained on the sideline until, somewhat surprisingly, he was called for a handful of snaps late in the fourth quarter.

The pass rusher finished with six snaps. The reason was that he had suffered a wrist injury during the warm-up. Huff said Thursday he was ready to play the whole game.

“It was just up to the coaches to play me the way they wanted to play me,” he said. “I was ready to go the whole time.”

Huff, who is still struggling to live up to the hopes the Eagles had for him when they signed him to a three-year, $51 million contract last offseason, has 1.5 sacks, nine QB pressures and just eight tackles 41 percent of the time. the defensive snaps this season.

Is a message sent?

If so, neither head coach Nick Sirianni nor defensive coordinator Vic Fangio are giving any indication of that.

“He’s still in the mix, in the rotation of rushers,” Sirianni said. “I have a lot of confidence in him. You know something was going on after warm-up last week. That’s exactly the way that match went and how he felt. Yes, I have a lot of confidence in him and the things he can do.

Fangio added: “When a guy is dealing with something, you’d rather play a guy who’s 100 percent or close to 100 percent. And at the end of the game we had those two drives at the end where guys got gassed.

Huff said he has blocked out all media and fan noise by removing his social media presence. “You can’t really see anything out there, so I removed everything,” he said.

Huff said he felt his wrist light up a little during warmups and he let the coaches know. “It was like me shoving someone,” he said. “It went a bit in the wrong direction. It turned a bit, I think.”

After the Eagles secured their 28-23 victory over the Jags, Huff declined to speak to reporters. He said Thursday that the reason for that was simply because he wanted to get treatment for his injury as quickly as possible.

Huff said he is 100 percent ready to compete against the Cowboys on Sunday in Dallas. With a groin injury limiting Nolan Smith in practice, Huff should get plenty of snaps. He should.

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