The Philadelphia Eagles didn’t trade Haason Reddick for Bryce Huff. It just kind of looked that way.

A former Mobile prep star at St. Paul’s Episcopal, Huff signed a three-year, $51.1 million contract that included a $16.125 million signing bonus and $34 million in guaranteed money as an NFL free agent in March. The deal took the pass-rusher from the New York Jets to the Eagles.

Less than three weeks after signing Huff, Philadelphia traded Reddick to the Jets for a conditional third-round selection in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Reddick led the Eagles in sacks in both his seasons with Philadelphia, recording 16 in 2022 and 11 in 2023.

After joining the Jets from Memphis as an undrafted rookie, Huff showed pass-rush promise with 7.5 sacks and 22 quarterback hits in limited duty during his first three seasons. In 2023, Huff recorded 10 sacks and 21 quarterback hits.

Huff rang up those stats on 480 defensive snaps. Reddick played 862 snaps for the Eagles in 2023.

At Philadelphia’s mandatory minicamp, Huff said he was getting ready for a heavier workload in 2024 “just the same way I’ve always prepared, honing in on my conditioning and staying strong, doing a lot of injury-prevention work and just staying dialed in on the details really. … My mindset has always just been to come in and whatever the coaches give me to execute on the field, I’m going to do it to the best of my abilities.”

Huff also said he’s “not necessarily” feeling more pressure because of his bigger contract and more prominent role “because I’ve always trained with the mindset that it only takes one play for somebody to get hurt – God forbid – or somebody to miss a game, so I’ve always practiced to be fully prepared for any opportunity, so I’m just taking that same process into this year and playing my role.”

Huff isn’t the only thing new about the Philadelphia defense. Only two teams yielded more points than the Eagles last season, and Philadelphia has a new defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio.

“He puts us in a great position to make plays and impact the game in big ways,” Huff said. “… We got to put the QB down to win games, so at the end of the day, that’s a focal point for us as a D-line. We have to impact the QB.”

Fangio’s first season with the Eagles will be his 21st as an NFL defensive coordinator.

“Vic is definitely old school in the sense that, like, hard work will get it done,” Huff said, “and I fully believe in that.”

The Eagles report for training camp on July 23. Philadelphia opens its three-game preseason schedule on Aug. 9 against the Baltimore Ravens and kicks off the regular season on Sept. 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, against the Green Bay Packers.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.