Howie Roseman spoke with reporters at the NFL annual meetings in Florida on Monday. He didn’t have anything groundbreaking to say, but did drop a goofy Derek Barnett quote.

This is from Jimmy Kempski at Philly Voice:

“I think that perception of Derek is probably not fair with the reality,” Roseman said. “He’s a guy that if we we’re looking at a different team and you’d go, ’26 year old defensive end coming off his not best year,’ we’d kind of look at that and go, ‘Alright, maybe that’s an opportunity.’

“Obviously, his playing temperament is ideal, fits Philly. He understands the perception of him and the thousand untimely moments. But this is a guy who certainly contributes to a great defensive line. We’ve seen it with us. I think that going into free agency, he probably thought a little differently about where he would be and for us understanding that that’s what he was thinking and he got to a point where it’s a huge priority to us to have a wave defensive line that’s really good. We know we can count on him.”

This is Howie covering his tracks by defending another underwhelming first round draft pick.

I think we can all agree that getting a 26-year-old defensive end for cheap after paying the same guy $10 million last year is a good bit of business. But the reason the Eagles got him for cheap is because 31 other NFL teams didn’t want him, and they didn’t want him because he’s a goober with a history of dirty plays who has logged more penalties than sacks since going pro.

The instances are numerous, but as one example, Barnett was find $28,000 for this:


Unnecessary hit.

There was also the time Doug Pederson said “he didn’t need to do it” in reference to this hit on an offensive lineman who wasn’t even close to Nate Gerry, returning an interception for a touchdown:

The 2019 version of Derek Barnett had 6.5 sacks, 22 QB hits, and two forced fumbles. If they can get that guy back, then it’s a great bit of business from Howie. But there’s been less of that over the years and more of the cheap hits and boneheaded penalties. There’s a fine line between playing hard and playing dirty, and Barnett is often on the wrong side of that line. The fan perception of Derek Barnett is 100% accurate.