Barnett Signs
Posted: June 2nd, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 69 Comments »Derek Barnett is officially an Eagle.
#Eagles and first-round pick Derek Barnett agree to terms on a four-year contract. #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/jPhycrfbpz
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) June 1, 2017
Remember the days when players were signing in July and August? Brodrick Bunkley missed at least a week of Training Camp and that definitely hurt him in his rookie year. Hurt the Eagles too. Thankfully the league and the NFLPA found a way to fix the system so that players get signed quickly and easily these days. Everyone benefits.
The Eagles have everyone under contract so there are no excuses for the rookies not to play at a Hall of Fame level. Reggie White holds the team record with 21 sacks in a season (back in the 12-game season of 1987!!!) and I fully expect Barnett to break that this year. He doesn’t need 30 or anything crazy like that. I’ll settle for just 21.5. No reason to be greedy, right?
*****
2012 Fletcher Cox
2013 Lane Johnson
2014 Marcus Smith
2015 Nelson Agholor
2016 Carson Wentz
2017 Derek Barnett
Barnett is off to a good start. I know it is way early, but we can only judge players on what they’ve done. So far he has impressed his teammates and his coaches, with both ability and work ethic. Beside, Barnett felt like a good pick. He was a star player from a major school who was picked where most thought he would go. Solid athlete with solid size and great production.
If he pans out, that would give the Eagles four good 1st round picks in the last six years. That’s how you build a good foundation for a team. Teams that do well in the 1st round are going to have a really good base to build around.
This group does have to prove they can take the next step. Johnson has to stay on the field for 16 games. He better be watching his substance intake with an electron microscope.
“What would you like in your coffee, Mr. Johnson?”
“Nothing. I’ll take it black.”
“What toppings would you like on your pizza?”
“Just cheese. And don’t go to heavy on that.”
“Sprinkles on your ice cream?”
“Are you nuts? Are you trying to get me thrown out of the league? Just give it to me plain!”
Wentz has to show us how good he can be. He had a solid rookie season, but no one is exactly sure what to expect for this season and the future. Is he going to be Ryan Tannehill or Ben Roethlisberger? I think Wentz has a bright future, but we need to see him in action this year to get a better feel for things.
Cox has established himself as a Pro Bowl player and one of the best DTs in the game, but even he can raise his game. Albert Haynesworth was a dominant force under Jim Schwartz. Cox has that kind of potential. We’ll have to see if he can actually get to that level for a whole season or will just flash that kind of ability. It isn’t easy to play at that level. Not many guys are able to pull that off.
And Barnett has to show us he can play. He feels like a good pick to this point, but it is early. He’s got a lot more tests ahead of him.
If this group of 1st round picks can take a big step forward, it will help the Eagles to have a winning season and get back to the playoffs.
*****
What about Smith and Agholor?
Smith feels like he is trying to get the Eagles to cut him by not showing up for the OTAs. That’s just dumb on his part. He might feel he’s not going to make the team so he wants the Eagles to cut him sooner rather than later so he can find a job elsewhere. I could understand that logic. However, you send a bad sign to 31 other teams when you skip OTAs. You do need another team to want you.
I guess Marcus could put together a clip reel of his 4 career sacks. I’m betting NFL teams would be blown away by a 25-second highlight reel.
Agholor is playing better than last year, but he’s got to show he can be reliable and consistent. He’s like the screw-up sibling a lot of people have and he’s all excited by not doing anything bad for two days. “Do you trust me now?”
Uh, no.
Nice start, but we’ve got a long, long way to go.
_
21 sacks in 12 games is 1.75 per game. Barnett should get at least 28 this year, just to shut up the nostalgic whiners crying for an asterisk. Uniting fans young and old really doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
It is really a complete and total travesty that the scab games took away from White’s ability to destroy the NFL sack record for a season. I won’t pull a 100% extrapolation to get him to 28 sacks, but 23 would be an easy guess to venture.
Considering the league that he played in at that time- it’s an amazing number. Reggie was one of the nicest human beings I had the chance to meet; I remember when the news came out that he had passed away.
To me, he fits the ultimate Philadelphia athlete- the guy that carried a team to heights, but never the ultimate glory. He left, and achieved his dream elsewhere.
Great news about the signing of Barnett, agree that the NFL and NFLPA getting that rookie signing process rationalized has helped a lot.
Cox and Johnson have proven to be very good players. I agree though that a call on Wentz is still too early, he needs to prove his struggles last season are going to be addressed and progress is being made.
I may also be in the minority, but I’ve not totally given up on Agholor yet. If he can take a major step this season, he may still find a role and stick.
I think the other interesting angle on recent drafts are the 2nd rd picks:
2012: Kendricks, Curry
2013: Ertz
2014: Matthews
2015: Rowe
2016: None (traded to get Bradford)
2017: Jones
Kendricks appears to be on the rails out of town because he does not “fit” Schwartz’s scheme. Maybe he ends up in NE where he and Rowe can share a laugh. Curry has shown flashes, but we need to see more finish and consistency. Ertz has panned out as a good TE. Matthews is a good WR, but needs to be more reliable and dynamic. Jones is an unknown due to his injury.
Great overall post, but what on earth……………
“Kendricks appears to be on the rails out of town because he does not “fit” Schwartz’s scheme.”
Kendricks is a chronic milker of injuries, fails often in coverage, and runs himself out of far too many tackles. What part of that meshes with New England?
The NE part was a joke, but as we saw even with a flawed player like Rowe NE routinely finds a way to utilize a player’s talents whereas the Eagles seem to struggle doing so.
Kendricks is injury prone, but I think the evidence he has purposefully milked injuries to be very thin. Again, Kendricks has specific strengths and weaknesses – instead of harping on his weaknesses and marginalizing him, it would be nice to see Schwartz find a way to maximize his strengths in the scheme. I’ve seen Kendricks play well and execute on the field so the talent is there.
I think the difference is that Rowe was simply not a scheme fit with Schwartz, but is a good player in other systems. I cannot restate enough times that I think Kendricks is a fundamentally flawed player from the neck up.
And we’ll have to agree to disagree on the reasons behind Kendricks going from “I’ll be fine” and “day to day” on a calf injury that kept him out a month. Flaming guys over slow return times was one of my favorite elements of Kelly’s time here, but I know most folks don’t agree with me on that.
That is a beef I have with Schwartz and other coaches who see only limits rather than opportunities.
Instead of saying, “he does not fit my scheme”, I would wish Schwartz would ask himself the question “how can I utilize him to enhance my scheme” or “what skills does player x have that can help my scheme perform better”.
If it turns out there is no way to utilize the talent, then you have make a move, but I would do everything possible before that to avoid losing talent for nothing.
On Kendricks milking injuries, I think it is very difficult and unfair to speculate about how player x responds to an injury or how long they take to recover – every person heals differently and to accuse them of being lazy or duplicitous without any evidence is off-base IMO.
I hear you on that point, but to me that has the potential to prioritize “maximizing the potential of the player” over “maximizing the performance of the (defense)”.
If Schwartz has calculated that using him in the ways to best use Kendricks in his scheme etc… would ultimately be worse than having the defense go without him, then it’s not about him being “scheme inflexible”. It’s about making the best decisions for success of the team/unit.
Well, obviously, that would be part of Schwartz’s evaluation. If he reviews it and concludes that Kendricks’ skills cannot help the D and his weaknesses are so bad the D would be weaker with him in the rotation, so be it. We have to trust his evaluation.
Upvote overall, but particularly (!!!!) for an Eagles fan – or Philly sports fan for that matter – actually supporting the notion of trusting a coach for their decision making!
#TrusttheDC
Seriously. I’m sick of media Mike talking so much shit about guys cause of injuries. It’s the most irrational shit I’ve seen on this board including all the trolls.
Wow, sorry for your sickness.
well he is a dooshbag
The general issue with Kendricks seems to be that every time he’s missing time Kempski, and a few other guys who cover the team, seem to treat it as a ‘here we go again” type situation as if that’s the expectation with him.
First year, a coach is building the roster more than changing his scheme to fit what he inherited.
What made Rowe flawed, other than the fact that every player has strengths and weaknesses?
Regarding injuries, part of playing football is being on the field when hurt and still doing your job. It seems as though Kendricks may error on the side of not risking his body. Can’t say I really blame him, but also can’t blame the team for not wanting that on the roster.
“I may also be in the minority, but I’ve not totally given up on Agholor yet. If he can take a major step this season, he may still find a role and stick.”
Due to his contract, we’re going to find out either way. Cutting him at this point has too many negative cap ramifications, so I’d assume we’ll be looking at a WR corps of
Alshon, Smith, J Matt, Hollins, Gibson, and Ags.
The big question is do they even bother activiating Ags most weeks if the two rookies show some jump on special teams.
Agreed. Someone however will likely get injured which will give Agholor another shot. It will be up to him to grab it or not.
True. The worst that happens is that he remains a bust, is never active, and is gone after the year. We added 4 guys that all seem to have some type of potential ability to improve the WR group, so Ags is way less critical at this point. What really annoys me with him is that there weren’t any indications that he was a bad reach or had high bust potential when they drafted him. This isn’t a Marcus Smith or Jon Harris type debacle.
Or the firefighter who must not be named.
Oddly enough, that was more of a failure of their interview process in terms or not picking up how little interest Watkins had in being an NFL football player than it was a mistake reach. Watkins wasn’t out of line for where he was taken.
He was applying for a job, so he would have hidden his disinterest. Either that or he didn’t realize it until he entered the NFL .
With Smith and Hollins being able to stretch the field, I think Gibson will be the one who doesn’t dress. Ags will get some snaps, but if he fails to produce, then he’ll be the one in street clothes. We are assuming the Eagles will keep six WRs, which is not a given.
Beyond injuries, there’s still the possibility they find a home for Matthews somewhere else.
I’d welcome that, but I guess we’ll need to count those chickens after they hatch. And I’m curious if they’d keep 6 WRs still if Matthews was moved.
Hard to find a 6th to keep. Probably better to go heavy on OL (pun intended.)
The most frustrating part of Aggs is that he has shown crisp route running and it’s been written how hard he practices and then when game day comes, he still can run the routes and still get open but cannot find a way to reel in passes on a consistent basis.
I can only imagine the level of anguish he must go through after all the preparation and hard work he puts in.
Usually as the saying goes, you reap what you sow but somehow the saying does not apply to Aggs.
If he is working as hard as he can but rarely gets to reap the rewards, that’s got to be a hard pill to swallow.
I feel bad for him and for that reason, I am still rooting for him to turn things around.
Yeah, he basically needs to improve enough to be better than Smith (I’m not a fan, but he’s better than Ags if he doesn’t improve) or have more game-day value than Gibson, or he’ll be relying on injuries to ever get activated.
I love the rookie slotting system under the new CBA. I’m hoping they address a few salary issues with the gap between rookie salaries for non first round draft picks and veterans so that we can see more vets on rosters as opposed to a few top salaried guys with far too many players in years 1 through 4. I’d love to see fewer cap busting top dollar deals and way more guys making over a million each.
I would like to see the new CBA provide cap incentives to retain long-standing players on one team. That is, make it easier to retain vets that a team drafted and have played 8+ or 10+ or so years. Something like the cap hits for players originally drafted by the team with 8 league years continuously on that same team, count only 1/2 against the cap.
That makes it more likely the long-time hero gets to stay with his team than being pushed out to sign the younger ones and FAs.
This is similar to my thinking. I was picturing a player’s cap hit gets discounted by 5% every year he stays with the same team. It could reset with a new team to encourage longer tenures and it would give a team negotiating with their previous draft picks headed to free agency a 20% home town discount on their cap.
I kinda wish they would give you 3 Franchise “off the cap” slots on your roster, then smooth out the gap between rookies and vets as you said. That should make rosters a bit more stable, let team’s starters hang together a bit better. The general ability to let more experienced players be on the field that have built chemistry with eachother should greatly increase the product on the field.
That would be interesting.
I’d fear this would further the gap between the franchise QB haves and have nots. Not only do they have the most important position locked up, but they can pay him exorbitantly without a cap hit?
In general it would make the NFL less volatile. So while it might improve the quality of football on the field, chances are it would also make it less competitive with good teams stubbornly retaining great rosters (and franchise QB’s), and struggling teams more or less being forced to rely exclusively on the draft to improve. It’s definitely a trade-off.
In general as far as QB’s go, I’m exhausted by watching Great QB’s on terrible teams. It’s a nice balancing act but then guys like Brady decide he’d rather win Superbowls than be the highest paid QB, and busts the balance up anyway.
Or they could you know, stop artificially deflating wages and move away from a cap. Or at least go to a soft cap.
Teams could all spend at least 75 million more than they are currently.
Just out of curiousity, I wonder what the Eagles LB plans are if Bradham gets suspended for his off the field behavior and injury prone Hicks and/or Kendricks miss more time this season?
We have Walker & Goode as our main backups – could the Eagles still be looking at other team’s cuts etc. to bring in more competition/depth?
Don Cherry is also a depth “sleeper”. But I agree. Also, albeit convert/project… we did draft Gerry for this purpose.
Cherry basically has no athletism and showed nothing in Preseason. Not that I can evaluate him like Schwartz, not by a mile, but I have no idea how he is still on the roster. Personally, I see a very low floor and no upside.
camp body?
He has been for awhile now.
Well, approx. 25 players per year on the 90 man roster are. You could still try to find camp bodies with potential. It’s not like the Eagles aren’t doing that, in general. Every team does. I just find Cherry odd. No great or even good college career, no athletism, no preseason performance. Don’t know how he qualified for the Practice Squad last year.
But again, I don’t want to sound like a smarta**. Schwartz and his gang see him in practice all day. There must be something they like about him. I’m just not seeing what exactly that is.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81951967edec34ee61f0269cf820f47894d1745cc0f23e07755a20fc4038ada6.jpg
Grugier-Hill better be ready to play?
Really, if the entire starting unit on any level goes down, we are pretty much screwed. So is every other team in the league.
Man, if we ever have to resort to actually having to start any third string player at any point of the season, then we are in big trouble whether his name is Cherry or any other name you want to slot in as your third string LB’er.
I agree that he is not that good but we could do worse.
Take a look at our 3rd string QB or 3rd string CB, then you will really get ill.
What could possibly go wrong?
https://twitter.com/jamesrapien/status/870733008969506816
Pacman is a CB, Mixon is a RB. The only thing Mixon could learn from Pacman are bad things.
You think she got the D?
Probably lol, but he should keep what happened to Conley in mind… Gotta be careful out there
You absolutely do. About 6 months ago I had this girl that I hired for my office. Pretty girl. She started to come on to me very strong so I explained to her that as her manager I did not want to muddle the line between manager and employee.
2 weeks later I gave in and slept with her a couple of times. She then made a comment about how we should be a couple. I quickly shot that notion down in a non rude way.
2 days later she is telling the owner of my company, the one person that I report to that I was physically abusive to her.
Fortunately I have known him for years and he has witnessed me put a beating on someone for smacking a girl so he knew it was BS.
So yes, you are 100% correct.
Wow man that’s pretty messed up, but I’m glad it didn’t derail your life/career. Could you imagine how bad of a situation it would of been if you were a public figure though. Work place flings are so hard to judge because you see the person everyday over time the natural law of attraction happens for some and the individual can’t help but make a move. I can say this cuz I’m marrying my former co-worker next year lol.. full disclosure we actually hated each other for like the first 2 months working together and we were doing the same job so our situation is just a little different lol.
#BunglesCulture.
Fine example of what not to do!
Chiefs released Maclin
oh damn it’s actually true
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000812941/article/chiefs-release-wide-receiver-jeremy-maclin
每一滴晶莹的露珠，都是一颗透明的心情
Bring back Mac!! Bring back Mac!! Self-tacklin’ Maclin! Bring back Mac!!
(Is he still any good?)
He’s good but not good enough?
Is that a Dark Knight reference?
Wasn’t intentional if it is
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/adfe5ce9ce4e07edfef92b1130abe028109363e0347658a1492b9a674a52e6f1.jpg
Andy Reid cut him..wow. Have to think his protege wouldn’t have interest.
I do though!
Safe to say, he knows the offense.
Gotta make plenty of cuts to make room for him unless he wants to take a paycut. We have Howie so it can happen.
Ryan Matthews is going to pass that physical someday.
Tommy uncharachteriscally hard on the young bucks! I like it! They cant all be Alec Asher, am I right??
Saves 10M but KC giving no reason yet…