Commanders Free Agent Fits: Edge Rusher
Taking a look at a couple of edge rushers that the Washington Commanders could potentially target in free agency
Edge rusher is one of the Washington Commanders biggest needs this offseason. The team entered the 2023 season with only two defensive ends under contract beyond the 2023 season and those were both late round rookies K.J. Henry and Andre Jones Jr. Then, midway through the season, starters Chase Young and Montez Sweat were both traded at the trade deadline, when the expectation was the Commanders would perhaps trade one and extend the other. This means Washington desperately needs multiple edge rushers and will likely look to add some in both free agency and in the draft.
There are some big names in free agency this offseason in Brian Burns and Josh Allen, but it’s largely expected both will either receive franchise tags or agree to an extension with their current teams rather than hitting the open market. I’m not too sure the Commanders would have made a big play for either one anyway, given Adam Peters consistently has stated he doesn’t expect the team to spend massively in free agency.
But with that being said, the team does need to do something to address the position and does have a significant chunk of cap space in order to do it. So if there is a position they would make a big splash with, it would probably be an edge rusher. Remember too, the team needs more than one. While they could retain some of their own players, and James Smith-Williams is someone I think would make sense to bring back, an overhaul at the position is on the horizon. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at some potential targets.
Big name: Bryce Huff, 25
Huff wasn’t necessarily a big name outside of New York until this season, when the Jets edge rusher had a breakout year with 10 sacks. Huff went undrafted in 2020 and signed with the Jets as an undrafted free agent. He then proceeded to make the final 53-man roster in his rookie year and never looked back. Now there’s obviously some risk to overreacting to a player with one year of production in a contract year, but Huff showed some good traits that make him an effective pass rusher.
Something that stood out immediately when watching Huff is his cross chop move. He loves to set his angle straight at the offensive tackle to stop him from getting too wide before then suddenly bursting outside to the edge. He does this with a cross chop move, where his inside hand chops down across the body of the tackle to hit their outside arm. This then opens up the edge for Huff to use his quickness and burst around the tackle. You see two good examples of that move in this clip. The first comes against the Dolphins, where Huff sets his path straight at the right tackle before using that cross chop to access the edge. Once he’s hip level with the tackle, Huff accelerates by him and quickly sacks the quarterback.
On the second play of the clip, you can see how the Eagles right tackle gets out of his stance in a hurry, looking to cut off Huff’s speed to the edge. That’s where Huff’s initial path is so good because he forces the tackle to step back inside as he fakes an inside move. The tackle attempts to then catch him with his outside hand as Huff bursts back outside, but Huff’s cross chop catches the hand and hits it down to clear Huff’s path outside. He then shows good dip and bend as he turns the corner sharply and closes quickly on the quarterback.
What makes Huff so effective when bursting outside is that he’s willing to vary his rushes and attack the inside too. So when he angles his path inside for those cross chop moves, tackles have to respect the threat inside because he’s definitely capable of working inside too.
On the first play of this clip, we see Huff working against the Dolphins left tackle. He starts his rush outside by working up the field and getting the tackle to overset to the outside. That opens a lane for him inside and Huff quickly changes direction as he slants inside. The tackle ends up almost tackling Huff to prevent him from getting to the quarterback, but the pressure clearly had an impact still as the quarterback rushed his throw outside and ended up throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown.
On the second play of the clip, Huff works against Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata. He sells the rush outside even further on this play, getting five full steps up the field, forcing Mailata to fully open up to him. Like we saw before, this opens a lane inside and Huff has a great change of direction ability to suddenly dart inside the tackle. The quarterback felt pressure coming and bailed out of the pocket to avoid the sack, but the rush was a good one and did its job of forcing the quarterback off his spot and preventing him from making an easy throw on time.
Another thing that stood out with Huff is how often he gets blockers into odd positions. Offensive lineman are typically taught to stay as square to the line of scrimmage for as long as possible, but Huff has this knack for getting tackles into weird positions with their hips and feet, which enables him to cause them issues.
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