Philadelphia Eagles: Was the 2017 NFL Draft class a flop?
Sidney Jones, CB, 43rd pick
Sidney Jones had a lot of obstacles to overcome during his rookie year. As a consensus top-ten pick, Jones tore his Achilles working out for NFL teams at his pro day. That injury killed his draft stock and left him available until the second round. That’s when the Eagles took value over immediate production. We knew we had to be patient with Jones, but the patience is running thin.
Technically, last season was Sidney Jones’ rookie year. He started off strong but quickly started dealing with a hamstring injury, which eventually killed his growth and ended his season. Now, Jones needs to shake the injury-prone label, and re-introduce himself to the football world.
What needs to happen? Jones needs to stay on the field for 16 games. If he goes down with another injury, there’s no way he remains on board beyond 2020.
Derek Barnett, DE, 14th pick
Derek Barnett wasn’t the pick that everyone expected, but nobody minded it when he was notching over five sacks on part-time snaps. Barnett had a tremendous rookie season and made a couple of critical plays throughout. His most notable contribution came in the NFC Championship when he strip-sacked a driving Case Keenum. Then, two weeks later he recovered the fumble in Super Bowl LII when Brandon Graham strip-sacked Tom Brady.
As a rotational backup, Barnett was very productive. He was productive enough for the Eagles to want to make him the starter on the defensive line. Six games into his Sophomore effort though, he got injured and was ruled out for the year. The worst part about that was his shoulder surgery became his second surgery in the same year. Barnett hasn’t been around long enough to be called injury prone, but another injury in 2019 could convince us to say otherwise.