The San Francisco 49ers’ offseason workouts came and went this month, and Bryce Huff didn’t even feel a twitch.
The pass rusher surprised everyone when he retired in March at the age of 27, six years after reaching the NFL as an undrafted free agent and two seasons after signing a three-year, $51 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.
It was a family decision, something Huff and his older brother, Jordan, had thought about for a couple of years.
“I feel like we’re going to save a lot of lives and protect a lot of companies,” Huff said of his next endeavor.
After chasing quarterbacks, Huff is now trying to tackle the issue of the fire risk created by lithium-ion batteries. Huff, who turned 28 in April, said he and his brother have been building the company, Naberstone, for 2 1/2 years.
“It’s going well,” he said in a recent phone interview. “We’re still in the early stages.”
Huff said Naberstone, which he has funded himself, has six employees and has already landed one “pretty big” customer. The company is discussing deals with others, including the U.S. military, a major waste recycling company and groups in Europe and Asia, according to Huff and engineer Nik Tacker.
Huff believes the company can address a growing problem.
“Everything is slowly but surely containing batteries, from cars to our tools to bikes, you name it,” Huff said. “The biggest risk with batteries is the way they ignite if they were to take on some type of damage or malfunction or short circuit. One cell in the battery combusts … and then it’s just like a chain reaction throughout the battery.”
These types of fires are difficult to extinguish with water, Huff said, and doing so can disperse dangerous toxins. He and his brother have been working on a solution to put out fires without releasing toxic chemicals into the environment, and they think they’ve found one. They’ve partnered with an international manufacturer for scaled production.
“There’s not really much on the market that works like our product does, being environmentally friendly and safe to use for firefighters and people around the world,” Tacker said.
Huff and his brother were always thinking big picture, even when they played football growing up. Huff said they “were enthralled with science and entrepreneurship.” He studied mechanical engineering at Memphis until one of his favorite professors was laid off due to budget cuts, and he focused on football.
“Going into the NFL, I couldn’t really put my love for engineering to good use,” he said. “But now I feel like since we’re working with engineers on a day-to-day basis, it’s just as good as actually being an engineer myself.”
Huff was traded from the Eagles to the 49ers in June 2025. After Nick Bosa went down with a knee injury in Week 3, Huff tied for the team lead with four sacks for the season.
But the thought of walking away was already in the back of his head when he showed up in Santa Clara.
“I knew we would be able to help a lot of people, and the monetary upside was there as well,” he said. “So I feel like it was kind of making sense back then, but even more so after this season with how much traction we’ve gained over the last year.”
Huff said he was able to make several connections through football, and that the decision to walk away from $5.4 million from the 49ers was not difficult. (He didn’t have any guarantees in the third year of his contract, but there were prorated bonuses, and the 49ers still need a pass rusher.)
Huff said all players know they need a plan after football, and while some are in denial, he was lucky to have one that he accelerated.
“Everybody knows football is a short-term game,” he said. “You can only play until your 30s anyway.”
Most of his friends saw the move coming, but he said his teammates were shocked.
And his mom wasn’t happy.
“I’ve played football my entire life, and she definitely wanted to see me continue to play,” he said.
The 49ers overcame many injuries last season to win 12 games and beat the Eagles in the playoffs. Huff agrees with his mom that the 49ers have a real shot to win the Super Bowl this season.
“The biggest reason is that they get (George) Kittle, Nick (Bosa) and Fred (Warner) back,” Huff said. “Fred is the captain of the defense. And they also get Mykel (Williams) back, which is huge for the D-line.
“And then they got Mike Evans, too — he’s gonna kill it for the Niners. It’s going to be a great season, and hopefully they can bring it home.”
Instead of rushing off the edge on third down, Huff will be trying to secure a deal with a major electric vehicle manufacturer. Not to mention working on the disposal of batteries in power tools, vapes, laptops and more.
As jarring as that change might seem, he sounds determined to leave his mark in his new career.
“Electric vehicles, battery-powered equipment, data centers … it’s insanely growing,” Huff said. “And it’s affecting our infrastructure. So to be able to have a solution to be able to put (fires) out effectively and environmentally safely …
“It’s going to change the game.”