Allen Park — It took some time.
But, as Derrick Barnes goes through OTAs for a third time, he's exactly where he feels he should be.
Barnes, drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 draft, said after Thursday's OTAs in Allen Park that he's gotten "to the stage where I can just constantly get into what the coach wants us to do."
At Purdue, Barnes bounced from middle linebacker to edge rusher and back. He had a team-high 54 tackles in his COVID-shortened senior season and was named second-team All-Big Ten. Still, what he learned as a middle linebacker with the Boilermakers didn't necessarily translate into the NFL right away.