MVN - Most Valuable Network

What To Expect: Josh Barrett

Every draft year, there are always a few players that the pundits talk up as being as a highly wanted player  When the draft actually takes place, the player is drafted much later than expected, if at all, and everyone is asking themselves how this guy could fall.  The reasons could vary, but the praise that has been given to the player still sticks in the mind.  Whether or not the player was overrated or not, you still ask yourself, “Did they just get a steal?”

This is the question that belies Josh Barrett.  The Arizona State safety has had quite the rollercoaster ride in stock over the past couple of years.  After a solid junior year, he fell off the map and only started eight of 13 games.  There was some serious doubt about how he would make it at the next level, only to have an excellent scouting combine and push his stock back up on a workout warrior.

Add on all to this that this was a weak year for safeties in the draft (Kenny Phillips barely saved the University of Miami’s first round streak by being the last pick in the first round), and many considered Barrett a mid round pick.  Yet, the Broncos were able to wait until the seventh and final round to draft him.  What gives?

The cautionary tale that Denver has experienced would be Brandon Browner.  Like Barrett, Browner was expected to be a mid round pick, but he went undrafted, and promptly signed a free agent contract with the Broncos.  I was among the many who was excited that the Broncos had gotten a possible steal and had eagerly hoped that he would someday succeed John Lynch or Nick Ferguson.  But he was injured in the preseason, and never saw the field again.

This time around, I’m a bit more gunshy.  I’m looking for some solid special teams work out of Barrett in training camp and the preseason, and he seems like another classic practice squad project.  There’s nothing wrong with that—Hamza Abdullah was able to ascend to a starter after lingering on the Bucs’ practice squad.  Yet even with an aging John Lynch and uncertainty on the impact of Marlon McCree and Marquand Manuel, let’s not add more demands to Barrett’s plate.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.