Derek Barnett to miss rest of Eagles’ 2022 season with ACL injury

Derek Barnett will miss the rest of the 2022 NFL season after suffering a torn ACL injury during the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 1 over the Detroit Lions.

NFL insider Adam Schefter was first to report the news. Nick Sirianni later confirmed this unfortunate development during his Monday afternoon press conference.

Barnett had to leave the game midway through the third quarter. The Eagles originally ruled him questionable to return but he never came back in.

The Eagles’ decision to re-sign Barnett to a two-year contract worth $14 million ($7 million guaranteed at signing) earlier this offseason was not a popular one. Though not an outright bust, the 2017 first-round pick has underwhelmed during his Philly tenure. He especially frustrated fans with ill-advised penalties last year.

All that said, the team was higher on him than the public was. They were clearly counting on him to be one of their top three defensive ends.

Barnett’s injury opens the door to playing time for Tarron Jackson. The 2021 sixth-round pick was a healthy scratch in Week 1 due in part to a numbers crunch. Jackson had an encouraging summer so there’s some hope that he can step in and play well.

Still, Jackson is now the only defensive end on the depth chart behind Brandon Graham and Josh Sweat. The team has occasionally used defensive tackles Fletcher Cox and Milton Williams as ends but they’re not overly inspiring options in that role.

As of this writing, the Eagles currently still have an open roster spot after placing Andre Dillard on injured reserve last week. Now they’ll have another with Barnett going to IR. It remains to be seen how they’ll fill those.

If there’s any kind of silver lining to this news for Barnett, it’s that he’ll have a good chance to be healthy in time for the start of the 2023 season. Though that much is probably not very consoling at the moment.