Wide receiver Josh Huff has had quite the inauspicious beginning to his nascent NFL career: he's got several drops across a handful of games - one of which led directly to an interception against the Carolina Panthers - a pretty egregious fumble against the Arizona Cardinals and no touchdowns or explosive plays to his name.
Now, he can add calling out the Philadelphia coaching staff to the ledger.
In response to questions about Green Bay Packers' Micah Hyde's first-quarter punt return touchdown, Huff claimed that had he done what he knew he should have done - instead of listening to what his coaches told him to do - he would have made the play and Hyde never would have scored.
"I just did my job, did what the coaches told me to do. I just did what the coaches told me," Huff said, according to Andy Schwartz of CSNPhilly.com. "If I would have stuck to what I know, just played my game of football, I would have made that play."
That's probably not going to sit well with head coach Chip Kelly or special team's coordinator, Dave Fipp.
Huff, possibly aware of the storm of controversy his comments could brew up, cut the line of questioning short after his initial answer.
"That's all I can tell you without going into, without trying to get in trouble."
Sorry, Josh. It may be too late for that.
Late in the first quarter, a Donnie Jones punt landed in the hands of Hyde, with Huff only a few yards away. Instead of going directly at Hyde and trying to make the play himself, Huff slammed on the brakes, seemingly in an attempt to keep Hyde boxed in or to avoid making contact with Hyde before he caught the ball.
Hyde eluded him and the other gunner, Nolan Carroll, and was off to the races.
"I was just doing what the coaches told me to do," Huff told Les Bowen of The Philadelphia Daily News. "They told me to slow down before I got to the returner, that's what I did, and that was the end result. I was in position to make the play, but I was just doing what the coaches told me to do - slow down before you get to the returner . . . That's what I did."
Kelly, without calling out Huff by name, said after that he thought the team had a chance to make the play.
"I think we had a shot with the gunner to make a tackle. I didn't see the two guys on the left side. I don't know what happened at the line of scrimmage, but we weren't in our lanes where we needed to be."
The Packers eventually won by a score of 53-20, and while the punt return wasn't the game's deciding factor, it was a turning point that helped the matchup transfer quickly from hard-fought affair to an easy victory.
