49ers and Bryce Huff hope the pass rusher will be a perfect fit in San Francisco

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Bryce Huff went into the offseason expecting a trade after failing to produce in a new role in his one year in Philadelphia after signing a lucrative contract as a free agent.

Ending up in San Francisco seems to be a perfect fit.

After being a proverbial square peg in a round hole with the Eagles when he was used as a standup outside linebacker instead of a pass rusher off the edge, Huff has reunited with his former coach Robert Saleh in a scheme that caters to his strength of being able to get off the ball quickly and disrupt opposing quarterbacks.

"I learned a lot about myself throughout that experience," Huff said Wednesday about his season with the Eagles. "It just didn't work out at the end of the day. So you live and you learn. All I focus on is what I'm doing right now and that's being a 49er and doing everything I can to help this team win."

The Niners are counting on Huff to be able to do just that, believing that he can be the bookend speed rusher across from star Nick Bosa that the team has been seeking ever since a back injury sidelined Dee Ford after he helped the team reach the Super Bowl in 2019.

Ford had 6 1/2 sacks in 11 games that season when Saleh was defensive coordinator but played only seven games the next two seasons because of the injuries, leaving a void in the defense that the 49ers believe Huff can fill.

"He affects the quarterback," coach Kyle Shanahan said. “When you talk about just getting off the ball and how fast he does it. He will be our best get off the ball guy we've had since Dee Ford. So in terms of that, it's good to beat tackles that way, but also widens tackles to help with the inside pass rush and things like that and he affects the quarterback."

The Niners got Huff on the cheap a year after he signed a $51.1 million, three-year deal with Philadelphia. San Francisco traded a conditional fifth-round pick last month for Huff and are on the hook for only $7.95 million of salary this season.

Huff had his best success as a pro under Saleh with the New York Jets, He was initially as an undrafted free agent in 2020 and began to emerge as a key player after Saleh took over as head coach the following year and turned him from a linebacker into a defensive end.

Huff put on about 20 pounds of muscle and began to show flashes quickly before breaking through with a 10-sack season in 2023 that led to the big free-agent contract.

"Speed off the edge," Saleh said of Huff’s biggest strength. "I think highly of him as a pass rusher. Thought he was very productive, obviously, with the Jets. He wins at such a high rate. A lot of times we look at pass rushers, we look as sacks and sacks are important. They end drives. It's what ultimately gets these guys paid. But his disruption rate in getting the quarterback off the spot and the way he can do it now. … He wins so quickly so often that coordinators have to account for his presence on the field."

Huff had 67 pressures on just 334 pass rush snaps in 2023 for the Jets, according to Pro Football Focus, as he became one of the most efficient pass rushers in the game.

The Niners were in need of another pass rusher after cutting Leonard Floyd early in the offseason. They drafted Mykel Williams 11th overall in April but had no other defensive end who had a season with at least five sacks in the NFL. Yetur Gross-Matos is the only other edge rusher on the roster with extensive experience. Gross-Matos had four sacks last season in his first year with San Francisco.

"He's going to bring that speed demon off the edge, that's going require a running back or a chip opposite of Nick," left tackle Trent Williams said.

"I think he adds that the kind of that Dee Ford effect that they had in ’19 that took them to the Super Bowl. One of the reasons we had a really, really good defense for those couple years is having that guy who can actually make that quarterback step up by getting a good jump off the ball and being able to bend the edge."