Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Eagles nab defensive lineman with 1st pick
Eagles tab pass rusher Barnett in first round
PHILADELPHIA » The Eagles added the nostalgic spin to a wild and crazy first round of the NFL Draft Thursday night.
At 9:53, before a pro-Eagles crowd of nearly 70,000 blanketing the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Eagles took defensive end Derek Barnett off the board with the 14th overall pick. He broke the all-time sacks record of the late Reggie White at the University of Tennessee.
“It’s crazy how it all turns out,” Barnett said. “I couldn’t have even guessed that I was going to come here and that Reggie White played here. He probably is the greatest football player to play the game. So it’s just very ironic. I’m very excited.”
Barnett (6-foot-2 ½, 259 pounds) registered 33 sacks at Tennessee, where White starred in his college days.
Eagles player personnel chief Joe Douglas says Barnett would have fit right in with White and some of those Philly teams.
“We couldn’t be more excited about Derek,” Douglas said. “He is a guy as tough as nails. When I think of some of the teams I used to grow up watching here in Philadelphia he’s going to fit in with some of those guys from the late 80’s, early 90’s Eagles teams.”
The Eagles didn’t even try to act like the draft followed their script. It was full of quarterback trades, the Bears dealing a handful of picks to move up just one spot to No. 2 overall to select Mitchell Trubisky out of the University of North Carolina.
Later, former Eagles head coach Andy Reid and the Chiefs made a splash by dealing Buffalo the 27th overall pick, a third-rounder and a first-rounder next year to move up to 10. The winningest head coach in Eagles history chose quarterback Patrick Mahomes II of Texas Tech, who wasn’t invited to the draft.
Moments later the Texans traded up from the 25th pick to No. 12, where they selected quarterback Deshaun Watson, who led Clemson to a national championship. The Texans shipped their 2018 firstrounder to the Browns.
It left a ton of solid players on the board when the Birds got on the clock, although the Cardinals selected Temple product Haason Reddick with the 13th pick.
The Eagles has a choice of defensive tackle Johnathan Allen (6-2½, 286), game breaking tight end O.J. Howard (6-5½, 251), who ran 4.51 in the 40-yard dash, safety Malik Hooker, cornerback Marlon Humphrey and running back Dalvin Cook, among others.
“We did expect at the 14th pick that there would be some good players,” Eagles vice president of football operations Howie Roseman said. “The names of those guys may have been a little different than we anticipated.
“We’re always going to build along the lines. But at the same time we want to stick to our board and take the highest-rated guys that Joe and his staff put together. Derek fits our scheme. We fits the culture we’re trying to build. We think we got a tremendous player and a tremendous person.”
Barnett probably scared some teams off by running just a 4.88 in the 40yard dash and recording a 31-inch vertical leap at the combine. His pro day numbers were worse — 4.92 in the 40.
“I’m not a track star, I’ll tell you that right now,” Barnett said. “The combine tests and all that, I’m not the best guy for it. But I think football-wise my tape speaks a lot.”
Douglas obviously agrees. He told Barnett the story about Terrell Suggs, who set a single-season NCAA record with 24 sacks at Arizona State and was Pac-10 defensive player of the year in 2002.
Suggs scared teams off running just 4.88 in the 40 at his pro day. Not Douglas and the Ravens. Suggs has given them 114 sacks and six Pro Bowl nods in 13 seasons.
“I actually did make a comparison between him and Terrell,” Douglas said. “Just from the perspective that both guys didn’t test outrageously at the combine setting but both are highly productive players.”
The Eagles wouldn’t say if Barnett would immediately step in and compete for a starting job. The club has a history of whiffing on pass rushers, having come up empty so far with 2014 first-rounder Marcus Smith, and having paid a ton of money without much production from Vinny Curry.
Barnett has no doubts. And he was happy with the polite applause he received upon being drafted. He’d heard a lot of boos each time Commissioner Roger Goodell stepped up to the podium to announce picks.
“My plan is to come in and get around the vets and learn from them,” Barnett said. “And hopefully when the season starts I’ll be able to contribute.”
Douglas doesn’t seem to have any doubts either. In Barnett, he sees a cat who can finish.
“What Derek is highly proficient at is at the top of his rush,” Douglas said. “When the D-lineman gets to the top, he has excellent ability to bend at the top and finish. He can really close. And he uses a variety of moves. He can speed rush. He uses power on people. You’re getting a guy who knows how to finish when he gets to the top of his rush.”
The Eagles’ interest in Barnett goes way back.
“All through the process — in fact in December, Joe and I had a moment when he came to my office and started raving about Derek Barnett,” Roseman said. “And I showed him a piece of paper that I had written down his name. So it was kind of a funny moment we had there.”
It was a Draft Day the movie kind of moment. Instead of Vontae Mack, the name on the paper is Derek Barnett.
It’s how the Eagles make a splash.