Nick Sirianni Asks Derek Barnett for "Nothing Stupid" at Practice
Jimmy Kempski at Philly Voice had notes from training camp practice on Sunday. His story included a fight between Andre Dillard and Derek Barnett, then a fight between Dillard and Patrick Johnson, and then another fight between Dillard and Johnson. The best part of practice, though, came when Nick Sirianni yelled from the sidelines at Barnett on a 3rd and 3:
The “backed up” session was one of the liveliest of camp so far, and as noted above, it was dominated by the defense. I think the highlight of that session was on a 3rd and 3 with the offense still inside their own 10. Pre-snap, Nick Sirianni yelled, “Nothing stupid, Derek!” in the direction of Barnett, lol.
Everyone remembers the “It’s always him” clip of Sirianni on the sidelines after Barnett jumped offside on 3rd and 7 against the Cowboys last year, which helped extend the drive and resulted in Zeke Elliot punching it in to go up 20-7:
i’m dead Derek Barnett got a penalty and you can read the Eagles HC lips
“it’s always him” 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/INbtEF1PyV
— TERRENCE MURPHY COMEDY (@terrencefunny) September 28, 2021
Having to remind a guy to do “nothing stupid” during practice isn’t really the definition of high IQ:
Sirianni: “Derek Barnett is everything that embodies what we want in the characteristics of a player. He’s tough. He’s competitive. He’s got high football IQ. He’s got high character. He loves football. And I love Derek Barnett. I love the type of player and person that he is.”
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) March 29, 2022
Barnett had four unnecessary roughness penalties last year. One of them being a big one against the Bucs in the playoffs:
Troy Aikman and Mike Pereira agree firmly that it should have been roughing the passer on Derek Barnett on Tom Brady #PHIvsTB pic.twitter.com/rFUINxoAFX
— The Whole Delivery (@TWDTV1) January 16, 2022
Should that have been flagged? Probably not. But Barnett has a reputation and refs know who they have to keep an eye on going into the game. Barnett has a history of bullshit penalties and late hits. This one on Jamal Williams resulted in a $28k fine:
HUGE hit by #Eagles Derek Barnett. Got flagged for an unnecessary roughness on the hit to #Packers Jamal Williams. Got taken off the field on a stretcher. #FlyEaglesFly #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/t0E2XT1BOE
— Joe Stauffenberg (@StauffSportsJ2) September 27, 2019
Another example here, as you can see Barnett chopping an OL at the knees while Nate Gerry is 20 yards ahead of him. Luckily it didn’t wipe out a TD:
Nice. pic.twitter.com/nW9SaF1tHH
— EROCK (@EROCK_Eagles) October 6, 2019
The dude plays with a lot of fire, which typically works in this city as long as the production is there. Most Eagles fans were shocked when the Birds decided to bring Barnett back. That forced Howie Roseman to say Eagles fans were wrong on their perception of Barnett in order to save face:
“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.”