Derek Barnett, the Eagles’ 1st-round pick in 2017, is out for the season after suffering a major knee injury during the Eagles’ win over the Lions Sunday.
“Derek will be out and he tore his ACL, and obviously that’s a big blow for us," Nick Sirianni said Monday. "I love the way Derek Barnett comes to work every single day and plays with grittiness and toughness and (plays) nasty.
"I am a huge Derek Barnett fan and he’ll be missed, so that sucks. I hate that for him, I hate that for this team. I can’t tell you how much I think of Derek."
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Barnett got hurt midway through the third quarter of the Eagles' win over the Lions on a 2nd-and-8 play near midfield where Jared Goff threw incomplete to running back Jamaal Williams.
Barnett, now a rotational member of the Eagles’ defensive line, played 12 snaps before leaving the game.
The Eagles do have a healthy Brandon Graham and Josh Sweat as traditional 4-3 edge rushers, but with Barnett out the only other healthy defensive end on the roster is 2nd-year pro Tarron Jackson, a 6th-round pick out of Coastal Carolina last year.
Jackson was inactive Sunday for the opener. He did play 253 snaps on defense as a rookie and had 18 tackles, no sacks and one forced fumble.
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"Howie (Roseman) and his staff have done a great job of making us deep at the O and D lines," Sirianni said. "We have some good options there, we have a good rotation there.
"Tarron wasn’t up yesterday, but how quickly it can turn from you not being up for a game to you having a significant role. We talk to the guys about that all the time and how if you’re a backup you’re one step from going in, and that’s the way it’ll play for Tarron.
"My heart breaks for Derek, but I look forward to Tarron getting more reps.”
The only defensive end on the practice squad is third-year 30-year-old international exception player Matt Leo.
Once the Eagles place Barnett on Injured Reserve, they’ll have two open spots on the 53-man roster. They still haven’t filled the spot that opened when they placed Andre Dillard on IR with a broken arm.
The Eagles ranked 31st in the NFL with just 29 sacks last year. They had just one sack Sunday.
This is the second major injury Barnett has suffered in his six seasons with the Eagles. In 2018, he missed the last nine games of the season after undergoing rotator cuff surgery. He also underwent sports hernia surgery soon after the Super Bowl and missed two games in 2019 with an ankle injury.
The Eagles made Barnett the 14th pick in the 2017 draft, but he never turned into the feared pass rusher the Eagles hoped. He had just 21 ½ sacks in five years under his rookie contract and managed just two sacks last year.
He reached free agency after the season and the Eagles surprisingly re-signed him to a two-year, $14 million contract that could also be a one-year, $5 ½ million deal if the Eagles decide to finally cut ties with him after this season.