2017 NFL Draft: Help in understanding Derek Barnett’s selection
Well, every Eagles fan has gotten the answer to the question we’ve asked all off-season.
Like it or not, it’s official. Derek Barnett, formerly of the Tennessee Volunteers, is one of the newest members of the Philadelphia Eagles. You can debate the decision or support it, but nothing will change either way. Yes, some of you wanted someone else, but it is what it is. One round of the 2017 NFL Draft is over, and the Eagles, with, the 14th-overall pick, ignored the emotional clamoring for running back Dalvin Cook. They threw the conventional wisdom of other professional football pundits to the side and decided against cornerback Gareon Conley. When, the dust settled, many of us heard a name called that most of us didn’t expect to hear.
We had heard about their board and their dedication to it. We heard that using some sort of “gut feeling” was taken completely out of the process. Most of us heard the press conference hosted by executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas, the team’s vice president of player personnel, and the theory was they’d employ a system of drafting the best player available and rely completely on the draft board Douglas and his team put together.
Why Barnett was taken:
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After listening to almost 20 minutes of the battle plan, we knew they believed in their board so much that they wouldn’t venture, even slightly, from its’ course. With that being said, we could assume Barnett was one of the guys Douglas and company truly wanted from the beginning. After listening to the statements Roseman made shortly after Barnett was selected, it becomes even easier to see that as being true.
“We were really excited to get Derek, highest rated guy on our board. A player, throughout the process, that we had done a lot of work on. Joe and his staff were 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. He fits our scheme. He fits our culture (that) we’re trying to build. We think we got a tremendous player and tremendous person.”
Rest easy Eagles fans. This may be one of those times where the team is actually right and the fans got it wrong.