Pressure’s On

PHILADELPHIA – With big-ticket pass rusher Bryce Huff set to undergo a procedure Thursday for his injured wrist, the Eagles are left in short supply of optionality when it comes to generating pressure.

Second-year EDGE Nolan Smith, tied for second on the team in sacks (3.5), has drawn heavy praise from defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and Nick Sirianni in consecutive days and will most certainly undertake an increased workload.

While Fangio cited Smith’s physicality and effectiveness against the run, Sirianni expanded on the Georgia product’s winding path to carving out a larger role.

“What a guy that’s been able to handle the ups and downs, not getting a lot of reps early on in his career because of the depth that we had at that position, to now being a big-time contributor,” Sirianni said Wednesday, emphasizing “patience” from everyone.

“It takes time,” Sirianni added. “And if you’ve got the right people, like Nolan is – Nolan deeply cares about being good at football. Nolan loves football. Nolan is as tough as we got. He’s one of the toughest guys we got on this football team. He plays as hard as anybody in the National Football League.

“And he’s got a great skill. When you have those characteristics as a person, God willing, you’ll reach your ceiling. And I think he just keeps getting better because of the skill that he has and who he is as a person.”

GETTY IMAGES: Second-year EDGE Nolan Smith will be asked to play more snaps and more of an impact while Bryce Huff is out.

Sirianni admitted that even he’s guilty at times of expecting faster development from younger players but acknowledged that growth can be “a process.”

“And it takes time,” he said. “And I think what you’ve seen is [Nolan] putting his head down, working every day – regardless of what the circumstances are – and you’ve seen him get better. And now, he’s contributing big-time to our success.”

Aside from Smith and team sack leader Josh Sweat, who leads the defense with six sacks, 36-year-old Brandon Graham will also be asked for more contributions.

Graham, in his swan song, is second in snaps at the position behind Sweat and accounts for 46 percent of the defensive total.

Depending on the duration of Huff’s recovery timeline, Graham could be stretched pretty thin. And in case of a desperation game day elevation to bolster depth, the team can lean into former Houston Cougars pass rusher David Anenih or 2021 Eagles draftee Tarron Jackson.

But the player most impacted by the Huff injury figures to be third-round rookie Jalyx Hunt, who has logged just 42 snaps this season, accounting for 8% of the total.

While Hunt played a career-high 25 snaps against the Cowboys in Week 10, he didn’t factor at all on defense last Thursday against the Commanders, his role relegated exclusively to special teams.

“We really like our room,” Sirianni said. “They’ve been playing at a really high level. We obviously drafted Jalyx because we liked his skill set. Jalyx has been doing a lot of good things on special teams, and so, we’ll see how those reps get divvied up and this week will tell a lot in practice.”

Huff is set to undergo a procedure Thursday for his injured wrist after trying for two weeks to play through the injury with a cast.

“He’s really done a good job of battling through, but this will hopefully help him get some more function in that hand,” Sirianni said. “And we’ll see as the season continues. But I just can’t say enough of how he battled through and tried to keep going through it.”

Sirianni said it hasn’t been decided if Huff will go on Injured Reserve, adding that the team would let the week play out to see where things stand.

– Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com.