Going Undrafted Will Fuel Surprise Starter Barnes ‘Forever’

Undrafted rookie linebacker Krys Barnes went from being cut to starting in the span of a week.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – After UCLA linebacker Krys Barnes went undrafted and signed with the Packers, he vowed revenge on the rest of the NFL.

“All the other 31 teams who didn’t pick me and passed me up, I will go out there and show them what they missed on,” Barnes told the ABC affiliate in his hometown of Bakersfield, Calif.

Turns out, the Packers almost missed, too.

Barnes was among their final roster cuts on Sept. 5. On Sept. 6, he was signed to the practice squad.

Then, a funny thing happened. When no linebacker emerged during the abbreviated training camp to pair with veteran Christian Kirksey, the Packers used last week’s four practices as an open competition. Barnes beat out former third-round pick Oren Burks and former seventh-round pick Ty Summers, was promoted to the 53-man roster on Saturday and started against the Vikings on Sunday.

Barnes did more than start. In 15 snaps, he recorded six tackles and a team-high two tackles for losses.

“I guess you could kind of say an emotional roller coaster at first,” Barnes said on Thursday.

Barnes isn’t the first player to be cut and then emerge as a starter, but doing it within a week is pretty incredible. Last summer, the Packers released receiver Allen Lazard at the end of training camp. It took until Week 6 for him to become a contributor. Barnes barely needed six days.

“He makes the plays that he’s supposed to make,” inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti said on Thursday. “And that’s what ended up happening. As far as it being uncommon, if you look at the right stuff and you’re efficient in your movement and you’ve got a level of toughness and a level of confidence to you, you can go out there and do that, and Krys has a lot of those things. And he displayed that.”

Or, as Kirksey put it, “You know a ball player when you see him.”

One of Barnes’ standout plays came when he stopped a screen to Dalvin Cook in the third quarter. If Barnes hadn’t made the play, Cook had a lot of running room. Instead, it was a loss of 2 and ultimately led to a turnover on downs. Barnes said he saw something on film that tipped him off on the play. That came as no surprise to defensive coordinator Mike Pettine.

“I think we first took notice of Krys in the spring just during our virtual offseason,” Pettine said. “Not only did he pick it up and know it, but he also could process it very quickly. A lot of the tests that we give, you get more points for getting the answer faster. He was a guy who we knew had a pretty good football aptitude. You never know until you get them on the field, but here’s a guy who has shown to be very instinctive, communicates well. I think he helps guys around him, and that showed up. It won’t be on the stat sheet but that showed up on Sunday. There were a couple of times he had to get things right with Kirko and some of the guys on the front. But then you never know until they’re out there. It didn’t come as a surprise to us the way he had practiced, but there was still that threat of the unknown.”

When Barnes signed, his resume as a three-year starter was overlooked by the media. Instead, the focus was on him being high school teammates with first-round pick Jordan Love. On Sunday at Minnesota, Barnes was running with the starters – and Love had one of the best seats in the house.

“We live together, so he’s my roommate,” Barnes said. “We talk on a daily (basis), just through camp, leading up to the game, like, ‘This is crazy. We’re both here, we’re both in the league in general, just still getting better at what we do. It’s our job now.’ So, it’s definitely crazy for us. We compartmentalize that and are able to focus on our job. And then after the game, he definitely congratulated me. After the screen, he came up to me and said ‘Good job!’ or whatever. He was definitely happy for me. We were watching film after the game after the screen play I made, and then you see Jordan on the sideline. He did like a little (fist pump), ‘Right on!’ type of thing. He was excited. Just being able to see him being excited for me, that’s a good feeling just knowing that after everything we’ve been through together, he’s still excited to see me have success and I’m excited to see him grow and I’m glad we’re with each other to be on this path together.”

Barnes said it’s “crazy” that he’ll be on the field on Sunday trying to tackle Detroit Lions running back Adrian Peterson. That’s not half as crazy as his personal story. Barely a week after his release, Barnes was one of five undrafted rookies in the entire NFL in the Week 1 starting lineup.

While Barnes has beaten the odds, going undrafted will continue to fuel him, just like it did in April.

“Nah, that’s going to drive me forever,” he said. “I feel like for me, being passed up on by 31 other teams is going to drive me to no end. I want to get better every day, continue to prove that I belong to be here, continue to make those teams feel like they missed on something great. I feel like that’s definitely going to be something that is stuck I my head for a while and it’s going to motivate me to keep going, because it’s definitely a feeling that hurt, not being drafted, but it’s going to push me and fuel me each and every day.”