Philadelphia Eagles: 2 Reasons Derek Barnett’s option wasn’t a wise move

1. We shouldn’t still be calling every season his ‘breakout year’ with these Philadelphia Eagles, should we?

This season, just like the 2018 season and the 2019 season, is being called Derek Barnett’s breakout year, the year he’s going to prove the ‘Birds’ made the right decision when they selected him with the 14th overall draft pick in 2017. How many of you still believe that when you hear it?

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After finishing the 2019 campaign with respectable numbers, the buzz began growing again that ‘next year will be the year’. It sounds like Dallas cowboys fans, doesn’t it? 2020 is Barnett’s fourth year in the NFL, and before we even reached camp, Philly exercised the fifth-year option on Barnett’s rookie deal. Perhaps that was a move made too early?

Eagles fans everywhere were expecting to find out if this season would be the one where Barnett would continue trending upwards or level out and plateau. It isn’t over yet, but there will, now, be even louder questions about whether or not that’s the case.

Barnett showed progress in 2019 as he finished the campaign with career-highs in sacks, quarterback hits, and total tackles. Despite that, Pro Football Focus still saw fit to give him a grade of 59.2, 8.3 points lower than the previous year. Still, even though Barnett hasn’t turned into a better-than-average pass rusher, he has shown that he can be a somewhat serviceable starter.

Whether Barnett is ready for the start of the season or not is up in the air, but there’s no point in rushing him back from the injury as he may run the risk of aggravating it even further. The team brought back Vinny Curry for one more ride, so they have someone capable of stepping up in his absence. One does have to ask why the injuries are so frequent though.

’96’ was supposed to be a fixture in the ‘City of Brotherly Love.’ He was expected to wreak havoc against opposing offensive lines and terrorize NFC East quarterbacks for the next decade. Nowadays, the question is will he even be around past the 2021 season. he has 16 regular-season games to prove his mettle.