The Inside Scoop on DT Christian Barmore
The New England Patriots selected University of Alabama players with their first two picks of the 2021 NFL draft with quarterback Mac Jones and defensive tackle Christian Barmore.
The spotlight clearly has been more on Jones so far, which only makes sense given that he was taken in the first round and that he's a quarterback. But that doesn't mean he'll make a quicker impact than Barmore or that he'll become a better NFL player.
While not everybody was high on Barmore as a prospect heading into the draft, particularly because of chatter that maybe he wasn't as "coachable" as ideal, Bama Central Publisher Christopher Walsh believes the Patriots hit big with that seection.
“The thing that really stood out to me about his selection, there was all this talk, especially after the first round where people were like, oh, Baltimore didn't take him, and they had two opportunities to do so, then New England turns around and trades up to get him," Walsh said. "Nick Saban was saying, look, he wasn't a problem. And some people were, he was uncoachable; if he wasn't coachable, Bill Belichick isn't taking him, I mean he’s just flat-out not. So that whole thing just got blown out of the water.
"He is the closest thing to a player in this draft when he is on to being unblockable, and I think he's gonna thrive in New England. He's going to be placed in the right situation. That's the thing about the Alabama draft, that's been just a constant thing, a lot of these guys ended up really in like probably the perfect place for them to go, like Najee Harris, running back, with the Steelers, I mean, you couldn't draw that up any better. I think Mac Jones to New England is a perfect fit. Christian Barmore in that system, he will have every opportunity to thrive.”
Walsh says Barmore might be an even better prospect than Raekwon Davis, another Alabama defensive tackle who was a second-round pick of the Miami Dophins last year and made his way onto the PFWA All-Rookie team.
“The thing about Christian, especially when he was coming up, and this was different from Raekwon, he kept getting penalties because he kept hitting quarterbacks in the head because he brings his arm up to try to block a pass and he’d bring it down, and he hits the quarterback in the head and it’s a 15-yard penalty," Walsh said. "And so he was having some trouble with a little bit of some of those little nuances and getting on the field, but the thing was Raekwon Davis had a really good first year where he was constantly in the backfield, but it wasn't because so much of the burst.
"Barmore is actually more unblockable. When he's on, you’ve got to double-team him, and there's just no way around it, and it just took a little longer for him to kind of figure out, like I said, those little nuances, And if he can continue to improve, he can have a monster career."
