Bryce Huff got paid like a premier pass-rusher this offseason. But while he got a new salary, the former St. Paul’s Episcopal standout said he didn’t get a new mindset.

“Just the fact that you came out and not a single team thought you were worthy of a draft pick,” Huff recalled of his entry into the NFL. “It kind of just stays in the back of your mind. Even with that new contract, just knowing that most of the guys on the team were drafted and were pinned as just automatically better than you, it’s definitely going to stick with me.”

Huff became a coveted free agent after he recorded 10 sacks and 21 quarterback hits on 480 defensive snaps (42 percent of the New York Jets’ total) during the 2023 season.

Huff was an All-State selection in 2015, when St. Paul’s Episcopal won the AHSAA Class 5A championship. Huff followed his brother to football, getting into the sport as soon as he was able in Mobile.

Jordan Huff ran for almost 5,000 yards at St. Paul’s before playing tailback at Northern Illinois, where he had 2,167 rushing yards and scored 22 touchdowns.

“I always watched my brother growing up, and when I got to that age, I was able to play ball,” Bryce Huff said. “There definitely was some pressure because everybody in Alabama played football, so if you weren’t playing ball, there really wasn’t much else to do. It was something I was really looking forward to as a kid.”

Football carried Huff to Memphis. He made the transition from linebacker to defensive end in his senior season. Huff recorded 15.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks, but he didn’t get picked in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The Jets picked up Huff as an undrafted rookie. He showed pass-rush promise in his first three seasons with New York by registering 7.5 sacks in limited duty.

A restricted free agent last offseason, Huff stayed with the Jets after they put a second-round tender on him. That was worth $4.304 million for the 2023 season after he had a $2.3 million contract for his first three seasons.

“Finding ways to get better every day and just taking it day by day,” Huff said of his first four NFL seasons. “Continue to get 1 percent better, just let the result take care of itself. …

“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot stronger in my game, whether it’s stopping the run or bull-rushing. I’ve gotten stronger. That’s probably my biggest improvement.”

After reaching double-digit sacks in 2023, Huff signed a three-year, $51 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles as an unrestricted free agent last week.

“It just meant a lot to me knowing I came in playing for pennies, so to speak, in comparison to other guys at my position,” Huff said. “Then finally being able to sign that deal and solidify myself as one of the top of my position group is really cool.”

At his introductory press conference, Huff explained why he picked the Eagles.

“Really just the culture and, like, the team that’s being built here,” Huff said. “The guys that have been here over the years, balling out, grinding and getting dubs on Sundays, so I feel like I fit in with that hard-working group.”

Huff is expecting to have a bigger role with Philadelphia than he did with the Jets, where he never played more than 51 percent of New York’s defensive snaps in a season.

“I feel like I’m capable of taking on a bigger role and really doing as much as I can to help us win on Sunday,” Huff said. “… I feel like there’s always room for growth, especially when you get around the edge group and the D-line group that we have here with Haason (Reddick) and all those guys that have been going at it, going hard for the last however many years. There’s a lot of room to grow and learn from the guys in my room.”

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