Through the first 10 games of his rookie season, Josh Huff has six catches for 48 yards. That’s an OK game for Jeremy Maclin.
The modest production alone is enough for the Eagles' wideout to feel like he’s not fulfilling expectations.
But he also sees the success his rookie receiver class is having this year, including one from his own locker room, and Huff can’t help but feel even more frustrated that he’s not making his own mark.
“It’s definitely hard, just me being a competitor,” he said. “I know what I can do in this league. I know what type of player I am. I know what I can bring to the field. I know what I can bring to this team. I’ve just got to get back to that.”
Right now, Huff is the 37th-ranked rookie in terms of receiving yards, and several of those ahead of him aren’t even receivers. Tennessee Titans rookie running back Bishop Sankey, who’ll square off against the Eagles on Sunday, has almost twice as many receiving yards.
Only two other receivers were drafted in the third round, both taken after Huff. The Colts took Donte Moncrief four spots later, 90th overall, and the Cardinals took John Brown 91st. Moncrief has 17 catches for 215 yards, 15th among rookies. Eagles fans don’t need a reminder of what Brown (34-468-5) can do.
But Huff’s troubles started in the preseason, when he separated his shoulder on a kickoff return and carried it into the regular season. He wasn’t ready to play until Week 5 and hasn’t since carved his niche in the offense.
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He’s dropped some passes, fumbled once and hasn’t made an impact as a kickoff returner, which was supposed to be his area of expertise. While second-round pick Jordan Matthews already has the seventh-most touchdown catches for an Eagles rookie and ranks third among league rookies with six TD grabs, Huff is still trying to find his way in the offense and on special teams.
“I want to be out there, I want to be on the field, I want to be make a difference on offense or special teams," Huff said, "but things haven’t been going my way.
“But everybody has different ways to success and mine’s a little different than my fellow rookie, Jordan. He’s having an outstanding year whereas me, I’m kinda having a down year. But I plan on picking it up and I plan on being better.”
Making matters worse, Huff, who played for Chip Kelly at Oregon, seemed to blame the coaches for his inability to tackle Micah Hyde on the punt returner’s 75-yard touchdown return Sunday in Green Bay.
Huff beat the ball downfield and had Hyde in his crosshairs but hit the brakes at the last second and drifted past the returner instead of tackling him. After the game, Huff said he was only doing what he was coached to do instead of what he wanted to do.
The day after, Kelly said gunners are never coached to run past returners.
“Obviously, so you don't want to get washed by him,” Kelly said. “He needed to arrive in front of him, but they're not taught to stop in front of them.”
Huff admitted this week that his postgame comments were the byproduct of his frustration boiling over.
“First of all, just to clear it up, I’ve never been a disrespectful person,” Huff said. “I’ve never been the one to point fingers. Part of what I was said was frustration. A lot of it was anger, just because everything that I’ve done so far this season has been going bad.
“It’s not a negative thing but it’s also not a positive thing because I know what kind of person I can be, I know what kind of player I can be and I know what I can bring to this team. [There] is nothing that I would rather do more than to play the game I know how to play and play it very well, but at the same time there’s growing pains with everything you do in life. Many people have fallen and gotten back up and became even stronger. I’ve fallen a couple times this season and I plan on getting back up even stronger.”
Huff has shown glimpses of his talent. In the preseason, he returned a kickoff 102 yards against the Bears. Against the Texans, in his hometown of Houston, Huff caught three passes for 26 yards, all three going for first downs. But he had another pass bounce off his fingertips and wind up in enemy hands for an interception.
Even though he is sharing snaps with Riley Cooper, whose production is nowhere near last year's, Huff just hasn't shown the consistency and big-play ability that marked his Oregon career. In his senior year he piled up 1,140 yards and 12 touchdowns while going over 100 yards six times. His 24 career TDs tied a school record.
“I just think he's a rookie and he's missed a lot of time,” Kelly said. “There's a maturation process no matter who you are and where you come in. And I think a lot of times those guys have had success. It's no different than a high school senior coming into college and then all of a sudden you have got to start at the bottom again. You were a freshman in high school and you're kind of looking up and all of a sudden you're a senior and you're the guy. Then when you're a freshman in college the same thing happens.
“It's a very difficult league. Not many players come in right away and make a huge impact as a true rookie, even though they want to and they've been successful in the past. I think he's just in the process of understanding that it'll come. We've got high hopes for Josh, and I think he's working extremely hard at it, but this isn't an instant-success league.
“You’ve got to continue to work at it and continue to grow, and I think the time off that he missed really impacted him just from a mental standpoint, because I think the perception is that we run the same offense that we did at Oregon, and we don't. It's a difficult deal for anybody to come in here and learn that.”
It may not be an instant-success league for Huff, but it’s been one for plenty of other rookie wideouts. The first two taken — No. 4 pick Sammy Watkins and No. 7 Mike Evans — are on track for 1,000-yard seasons.
Kelvin Benjamin (28th), Brandin Cooks (20th), Matthews (42nd) and Allen Robinson (61st) have already exceeded 545 yards and caught multiple touchdowns. Odell Beckham Jr. (12th), who missed almost all of training camp and the first four weeks, has 21 receptions for 357 yards in his past three games alone.
Dolphins second-rounder Jarvis Landry, the last receiver picked before Huff, has 42 receptions for 400 yards and three touchdowns.
Back in camp, Huff harbored higher expectations of himself. But then came the shoulder injury that set him back.
“Towards the end of the preseason I started picking it up, starting getting back into playing very well, but unfortunately I was injured and the injury set me back further than I [expected],” Huff said.
“It’s just been climbing uphill from there on here and things haven’t went the way that I planned on them going my rookie year. But that’s anybody. Like I said before, nobody said it was going to be easy. I just got to keep working, keep fighting.”