Philadelphia Eagles: 2 Thoughts on 2 areas where Derek Barnett must improve
1a. Philadelphia Eagles fans critique him a lot, but this isn’t a career that’s void of some pretty big moments.
You’d never believe this if your main sources for Eagles content comes from barbershop talk or social media, but Barnett’s been a part of some major highlights during the Eagles’ past few seasons.
He had the strip-sack of Case Keenum in the NFC Championship Game versus the Minnesota Vikings when the guys in purple were driving to make that one a game. It was Barnett who recovered Tom Brady’s fumble after Brandon Graham orchestrated the most famous strip-sack in Super Bowl history. Barnett is also responsible for a game-saving sack on Andrew Luck during a last-minute drive by the Indianapolis Colts in Week 3 of 2018’s regular season.
He’s shown he can make plays. He just needs to do that more often. His best moments as an Eagle have been few and far between.
1b. A double-digit sack year should absolutely be the expectation from the Philadelphia Eagles coaches.
With Brandon Graham on the other side of the defensive line and rotation at defensive tackle that includes Fletcher Cox, Javon Hargrave, Malik Jackson, and Hassan Ridgeway, Barnett might be the weak link along Philly’s defensive line, especially at the starting level. That may work in his favor though. It may also settle a few questions for us that we’ve all been asking for quite some time.
Related Story. B.G. should make Eagles fans feel better about Barnett. light
Barnett doesn’t have to be “the guy”. He just needs to be “the other guy” now. A double-digit sack season shouldn’t be too much to ask for. To be frank, if he can’t do that with all of those legitimate NFL stars on his team that will be commanding much of the opposing offense’s attention and taking the pressure off of him, a double-digit sack season is probably never going to happen for him in an Eagles jersey.