4 Philadelphia Eagles who must be benched without hesitation
Derek Barnett, defensive end. 96. player. 54. . .
Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Derek Barnett
Yep! It’s always him! Derek Barnett makes another list of the more infamous Birds. You cheer for him not because you’re happy with something he’s doing. He just earns a pass because he has the right jersey on.
57 regular-season games into a career that doesn’t look like it will end with enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the disappointments just keep on coming for a guy the Eagles spent a top-15 draft choice on back in April of 2017. He just keeps finding the spotlight for all of the wrong reasons.
It’s a stretch to say that you can count all of his best moments as an Eagle on one hand, but it isn’t much of one. Let’s try.
- He generated a sack-fumble versus Case Keenum in the NFC Championship Game
- He recovered the fumble caused by Brandon Graham in Super Bowl LII
- He had a game-ending sack versus Andrew Luck in Week 3 of the 2018 season
- Barnett strips Aaron Rodgers in Week 4 of the 2019 season (this time Graham recovers the ball).
Maybe there were other important moments. Maybe there weren’t. Who knows? His career has been a blur, but in all honesty, the highlights have been few and far between. The Eagles needed more out of a first-round draft choice. Instead, they got the equivalent of finding one punchline that works for every joke that you tell. Only in his case, the joke is always on Derek Barnett.
If he was deactivated for the rest of the season, Eagles fans wouldn’t miss him at all. Unfortunately, for the amount of money he’s making, there’s no way it’s going to happen.