Top pick Barnett accustomed to being in Reggie’s sizable shadow
PHILADELPHIA >> The photo in the NovaCare Complex auditorium is about 20 feet high, 15 feet wide, appropriately larger than life. And as Derek Barnett strolled past it early Friday evening on his way to a podium, a small number of Eagles fans cheered his every step.
The photo, one of four dominating the room’s decor, was of No. 92, Reggie White. As Barnett answered questions about being the Eagles’ top draft pick, it had to be in his vision. Then again, White has always been hanging over him, in one football way or another.
“In Knoxville, Reggie White is everywhere,” Barnett said. “He’s a legend in the state of Tennessee.”
White died in 2004, too soon at age 43, just a dozen years after the end of his eight-year stop with the Eagles, where he compiled a major chunk of his Hall of Fame resume. Barnett was 8 at the time, playing backyard football in Nashville, where his mother, Christine, was waiting tables and lugging boxes around a UPS warehouse to provide him with, as he said, “everything I needed.” That included having him properly equipped for fifthgrade football, the first time he realized that he could be a Tennessee legend, too.
“The first day of practice, I had a blast,” he said. “I knew I would go a long way with it.”
And so, he has, going from a four-star recruit at Brentwood Academy to the University of Tennessee, where he made 33 sacks in three years, one more than White’s school record. With that, the comparisons would arrive, welcome or not, reasonable or not. But there would not, Barnett insists, be added stress.
“No, sir, I don’t feel pressure,” Barnett said. “Reggie White is one of the great linemen to ever play the game. For me to be compared, it is truly a blessing.”
Barnett broke White’s sack record, and that will follow him for as long as he is with the Eagles, as it did at Tennessee. Never mind that the comparisons are flawed. Football has changed, with the passing game growing. Thus, Barnett — thus, any modern defensive lineman — will have more opportunities to sack a quarterback.
It’s why he needed three years to break the record that White had set in four. White was 6-5, 300 pounds, when he was attacking from the end of Buddy Ryan’s “46” defense. Barnett is 6-3, 258, more appropriate for Jim Schwartz’s wide set. Simply, there are more differences than similarities. “I didn’t scout Reggie White,” said Joe Douglas, the Eagles’ personnel chief, with a laugh. “But he is a legend.”
As the No. 14 overall pick, not the No. 1 or No. 2, Barnett is not obligated to become legendary for his selection to be validated. But he has to be close. That was a premium pick the Eagles invested in him, even if they were not desperate for a defensive end. That’s why it trended toward curious that the Eagles didn’t immediately plant him at the top of their depth chart, suggesting that he is still developing.
“I think there is a higher ceiling with Derek,” Douglas said. “I think he is going to get better. I think (defensive line coach) Chris Wilson and (assistant defensive line coach) Phillip Daniels are going to do a great job with him and improve some of his hand technique. He even said it in his interview after he was drafted, how he’s just scratching the surface of his talent level.
“So I expect him to definitely reach his full potential because of his make-up.”
And that’s where, if the reports and the initial observations matter, he could match up nicely with White, a gentleman off the field, a minister, a legendary worker.
“My mom raised me, so she taught me to stay humble, put my head down and work,” Barnett said. “She worked a lot. I’ve seen her work up to three jobs when I was younger. So I think I get that attitude from her.”
Barnett had a rare experience, being selected by the Eagles, right on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. So unlike the other first-round picks, he didn’t have to catch an early flight to a far-away press briefing, and instead was simply hustled down Broad Street. To him, that was a benefit, a chance to get to work quicker.
“I woke up, came over to the stadium, toured the stadium, then came to the facility and met the coaches,” he said. “This day has been fun for me. I can’t wait until we start rookie camp and get around ball some more.”
There will be rookie camps and minicamps and OTAs and games and more games and maybe even some playoff games in what the Eagles expect will be a productive career for Barnett. Maybe the hard work and the chance to grow in a system with a second-year coach and a second-year quarterback will help to turn him legendary. Longshot? Of course. But few expected him pass Reggie White on some lists of Tennessee defensive excellence … or to hear from White’s widow, Sara, when he, too, became a Volunteers legend.
“She gave me a phone call about a week after the bowl game, after I broke the record,” Barnett said. “She was just congratulating me on everything I’ve accomplished.” And his response? “I told her,” Barnett said, “Reggie is still Reggie. I don’t think I’m better than Reggie. I told her, ‘Thanks a lot, and I really appreciate it.’”
Soon, the press conference was over. And the Eagles’ top pick would walk back out, past that Reggie White photo again, ready to work, hoping to someday seem larger than life, too.