Alright, so I probably lost about half of you already. For those of you that stuck, here's specifically why he is going to make the roster, and he's definitely going to play a chunk of snaps every week on Sundays.
Josh Huff is De'Anthony Thomas.
Okay, not literally. But seriously, their playing styles are so similar it astounds me that I haven't heard the comparison made before. I am not the first analyst to say that the De'Anthony Thomas role will be very much needed on the offense this year, but to the best of my knowledge I am the first to say it will be filled by Josh Huff. Back during the draft, Greg Cosell and Fran Duffy did a series of super great video breakdowns on our draftees. In this link, they break down Wendell Smallwood. Pay attention to what Cosell says about 30 seconds into the video.
"First thing that I thought of was De'Anthony Thomas..."
Alright, so I wholeheartedly disagree with the comparision, I do not believe that Smallwood will see a role anything like DAT's, but still, Cosell is saying he thinks the role that DAT filled will be a part of the offense this coming year.
I'll break down for you why Josh Huff is going to be given every chance to be that guy this year.
1) Measurables
The role that DAT carved out on the Chiefs was one where he was required to be extremely quick in small areas. Chiefly, he was used on bubble screens, tunnel screens, jet sweeps, and orbit motion passes. Thriving in these areas requires fast feet and ability to work in traffic. Basically, explosivity.
For a player to be explosive, many measurables may be considered. It is the opinion of this writer that the following four are of the utmost importance: height and weight, 10-yard split, broad jump, vertical jump.
Josh
Huff
|
De’Anthony
Thomas
|
|
Vitals
|
5' 11" – 206 lbs
|
5' 8⅝" – 174 lbs
|
10
yard Split
|
1.53 s
|
1.58 s
|
Broad
Jump
|
116”
|
124”
|
Vertical
Jump
|
35½"
|
32”
|
So, the numbers speak pretty well for themselves. Josh Huff is of a similar athletic profile than DAT, and actually a bit better in some aspects. His forty time, not listed, is slightly slower than DAT's. And his extra weight may slow him down some. However, his 10 yard split is a few hundredth's of a second faster than DAT's and that speaks to his short range athleticism.
2) Ability in the open field
So, the lone bright spot of Josh Huff's season last year was probably this play against Tampa Bay. The skills he puts on display here are talents that simply cannot be taught: superb ball carrier vision, stop-start ability unrivaled by many, acceleration up the field, and many more.
Now, check out this gorgeous play from Kansas City's game in London against Detroit last year. The offensive line and runningback playfake out a zone run to the right, leaving the backside defensive end unblocked. That 'backside defensive end' also happens to be Ziggy Ansah, maybe the best 4-3 end in the game currently. An old coaching adage goes, if you can't block a guy, leave him unblocked and read him. This play does something a little like that.
DAT motions from left to right and then back to the left preplay. At the snap, he is aligned directly behind Alex Smith, who is under center. The two tight end look allows him to have two lead blockers on the perimeter, and his acceleration and quick feet get him around Ansah and headed up the sideline. Beautiful stuff.
I think, in a similar situation, Josh Huff executes that just as well as DAT does.
3) Training Camp Twitter tells all
So, it can be incredibly hard to glean much of anything from the twitter accounts of our favorite beat writers during these early days of training camp when we are desperate for literally any tidbits of information about our beloved Eagles. However, if you weed through the garbage and monotonous mention of drops galore, you can sometimes get a few pieces of information that tell a little about the team that will be fielded this year.
Firstly, I will attach a video courtesy of Ed Kracz, an Eagles beat writer for Calkins Media. It's from his Twitter account, @kracze
Wentz with a dump off to Sproles #Eagles pic.twitter.com/qrVlt4rpOb— Ed Kracz (@kracze) July 30, 2016
Okay, so, a few things to say. Firstly, he gets in wrong in the caption, that isn't Sproles, it's Huff. So, that makes it important to us. Also, considering nothing else, we see Josh Huff motioning behind the line of scrimmage pre-play, and positioning himself for a tunnel screen behind releasing offensive linemen. So, that's pretty similar to how we've seen DAT used in Kansas City.
The smoking gun lies here, though.
That is from Week 10 last season. Does the play look familiar? Yeah? That's because its the exact same one as the one from Ed Kracz's Twitter.
In conclusion, Josh Huff is going to make the team this year, barring any crazy circumstances. Moreover, if you want to know what kind of role he is going to see, it would be wise to go back and watch De'Anthony Thomas' role in the Chiefs offense for the past two years.
This is a link to the Chiefs SBNation blog that outlined the impact DAT had on the Chiefs offense a few years ago, even when he didn't touch the ball. A good read.
Also, I'm aware that the YouTube videos redirect you to the YouTube homepage. The NFL is the NFL, and their joy comes from making their product harder to reach for consumers. My apologies for this.
Go Eagles!
