Jets Pushed to Sign High ‘Impact’ Pass Rusher to Multiyear Deal

It might be time for the New York Jets to open up the checkbook for one of their rising stars.

Joe Caporoso of the Badlands Podcast joined me on my radio show and explained why defensive lineman Bryce Huff should be a priority this offseason:

“I think it would be a mistake to let him go. He has a very specialized skill set as a situational pass rusher that isn’t easy to find. I would give him a multiyear deal. I would give him more playing time along with Jermaine Johnson.”

The 24-year-old, who will be 25 by the start of the 2023 season, is set to be a restricted free agent this offseason.

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Bryce Huff Has Proven to Be a Special Player for the Jets

Sometimes the bare-bone stats don’t tell the whole story.

For instance, when looking at pass-rushing win rates at EDGE, Huff would be so high on the chart that they had to make a separate post to show where he would have placed.

The only reason he wasn’t originally included on the list is due to his lack of playing time. He appeared in 14 games for the Jets but never made a start.

Believe it or not, Huff only appeared in 20 percent of the defensive snaps this season which is a career low.

Despite only putting 191 defensive snaps on tape, the former Memphis product certainly made the most of them.

“He finished No. 1 in pressure rate (21 percent), No. 1 in pass-rush win rate (28 percent), and he had the 12th highest pass-rush grade among defensive linemen with 130 pass-rush snaps (88 grade),” per Adam IDP on Twitter.

So what does that all mean? Well, let’s put it in a simpler form of context.

Huff created 36 pressures in 173 pass-rushing snaps. Carl Lawson, the $45 million prized gem of the Jets 2021 free agent class, created just 13 more pressures than that but it took him 259 more snaps to do it, per Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic.

As Rosenblatt noted on Twitter this isn’t a shot at Lawson, but just another way to describe how impactful Huff has been in limited snaps.

Simply put Rosenblatt said Huff makes an “impact” on about every pass-rush snap that he is a part of.

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The Jets Have Some Explaining to Do on Bryce Huff

So when you watch the tape and evaluate the stats there is only one conclusion to naturally come to, why the hell aren’t the Jets playing Huff more?

Not only did he have a career low in his snap percentages but the Jets actually made him a healthy scratch for the first three weeks of the 2022 season inexplicably.

Michael Nania of Jets X-Factor said that Huff needs to be given a new contract and with that a starting role.

You can’t say the man hasn’t earned it on the field with his stellar play.

He is going to be a restricted free agent this offseason. The tender prices change on a year-to-year basis so we don’t know how much it’ll be until the Jets decide what level they will tender him at.

Here are the Jets’ options:

• First round tender
• Second round tender
• Original round tender
• Right of first refusal tender

If the Jets placed a first-round tender on Huff for example and another team signed him to an offer sheet in free agency, Gang Green could either match whatever contract offer that was and keep Huff or let him go to that team and receive a first-round pick in return as compensation.

Huff will be a very attractive RFA this year with his age and potential, it’ll be fascinating to see what the Jets choose to do there.

Of course, they wouldn’t have to play this game if they simply decided to re-sign their young defensive lineman to a multiyear deal this offseason, as Caporoso argued earlier.

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