Behind the scenes of the start to Uar Bernard's NFL journey originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Clint Hurtt stood tall in the Eagles’ draft room on the morning of Day 3 and made his last push for Uar Bernard.
Hurtt was compelling and passionate.
“I’d love to get my hands on him,” Hurtt said in a behind-the-scenes video released by the Eagles, which featured clips from the annual draft Saturday passion meeting. “Explosive, violent, heavy-handed kid. Ton of upside. Developmental guy, but I trust myself and I believe in the kid.”
The Eagles’ well-respected defensive line coach allowed that Bernard had never played football before but said Bernard had more physical ability than some of the players drafted the first two days. Hurtt wanted a chance to mold him.
While Hurtt showed passion in that Day 3 meeting, it was not the first time some in the room heard about his affinity for the raw prospect from Nigeria. Hurtt wasn’t shy about it, especially not with Eagles GM Howie Roseman.
“I was worried I was pissing Howie off,” Hurtt said last week, “because I was texting him during the course of the draft like, ‘It’d be really cool to have this guy.’”
The Eagles selected Bernard with the 251st overall pick in the seventh round. While Bernard, 21, has never played a single snap of American football, he showed a ton of potential in the NFL’s International Player Pathway program and is a truly unique athlete.
But Bernard’s athleticism wasn’t the reason Hurtt pushed for the pick — at least not the athleticism on its own. It’s because he believes in Bernard’s work ethic.
The Eagles, like a lot of NFL teams, were wowed by Bernard’s athletic testing numbers. Bernard is 6-foot-4, 306 pounds with a reported body fat percentage of 6%. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.63 seconds, had a vertical jump of 39 inches and a broad jump of 10 feet, 10 inches.
But all that athleticism wouldn’t have meant much to Hurtt if he determined that Bernard didn’t have the work ethic to go with it. So the Eagles sent Hurtt to Fort Myers, Florida, this spring to meet Bernard in person and to put him through a workout.
“The workout was supposed to start at 9 a.m.,” Hurtt said. “He was ready to go at 7:45. Full lather, full sweat, the whole deal. And that, to me, means a lot. So he was excited for the opportunity.”
Hurtt and the Eagles were the first of 12 teams scheduled to put Bernard through a workout and Hurtt came away incredibly impressed. That started before the workout began and continued throughout it.
When Bernard made a mistake, he wanted another rep. He was eager to learn and that is what sold Hurtt on him. And that was why Hurtt felt comfortable making a passionate plea to kick off Day 3 of the draft.
“I’m not putting my stamp on everybody,” Hurtt said. “If you don’t have a great work ethic, if I don’t believe in your character and who you are as a person, I’m not putting my family’s well-being in anybody’s hands. But when I saw the kids’ work ethic and character, great, he’s an unbelievable human being. I know as people get a chance to spend some time with him, he’s a great kid. So I felt good about doing that.”
Now that Bernard is in the building and going through spring practices, it’s important to temper expectations.
This isn’t going to happen overnight.
After his collegiate playing career ended, Hurtt spent 13 seasons coaching at the college level at Miami, FIU and Louisville before taking his first coaching job in the NFL in 2014. Hurtt said there were some college players who didn’t begin playing until they were in 11th or 12th grade, so he’s now leaning on that experience as he coaches Bernard, although this lack of football knowledge is a bit more extreme. With Bernard, he’s coaching the basics of stance, alignments and adjustments.
But perhaps the most important element of coaching such a raw player like Bernard is trying to keep his confidence high. Hurtt said he made sure to install the easiest stuff first so that Bernard could feel good about his progress.
“Because to me, the most critical thing is keep his confidence high,” Hurtt said. “At this level, you’re going to get humbled because you’re going to get some of the best players in the world on our team. So you got to keep him feeling good where he’s like, he can also see, ‘Yeah, I have talent, but I also can see myself ascending and going forward.’ And I don’t want to put him in a situation where he’s just like, ‘Do I really belong?’”
We’re probably years away before really being able to determine if Bernard belongs in the NFL. But he is fitting in with his new teammates in Philly.
While Bernard was initially a little shy, he is starting to come out of his shell more and more with his teammates. Last week at a practice, Bernard surprised the heck out of his teammates when a Tupac song began blaring at practice and he rapped it word-for-word.
“And the guys went nuts,” Hurt said. “It was cool. They were like, ‘Hey, we didn’t know you knew who Tupac was.’ So that was cool.”
Bernard isn’t just learning how to play American football; he’s also learning about how to coexist and thrive in a locker room setting.
Jordan Davis, the leader of the Eagles’ defensive tackle room, thinks the natural connection between Bernard and Moro Ojomo has helped. Ojomo moved to the United States when he was just 8 years old, but just like Bernard, Ojomo was born in Nigeria. Bernard is also now teammates with undrafted rookie DE Joshua Weru, a Kenyon rugby player who was with him in the IPP program.
Hurtt said that Bernard is acclimating to the locker room but “is staying true to himself,” which Hurtt finds refreshing.
“He’s a good guy, great guy,” Davis said. “He’s really meshing into the room really well, not that we had any reservations or doubt that he [would] but just seeing him flourish in the room and get connected with the guys.”
While it seems like Bernard is off to a good start with the Eagles, this isn’t going to happen overnight. When the Eagles drafted Jordan Mailata in the seventh round of the 2018 draft, the former Australian rugby player didn’t see the field until his third NFL season.
And Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has some similar experience because he once coached Olympian Lawrence Okoye in San Francisco. The British discus thrower signed with the 49ers in 2013 and also spent time with the Cardinals, Jets, Cowboys, Bears and Dolphins over the course of five years, but never played in a regular season game.
“He’s picked things up well,” Hurtt said of Bernard. “You gotta understand he’s going to need time. It’s going to need time. And anybody who thinks it’s going to happen overnight, you’re kidding yourself. But he’s coming along well.”
This is going to be hard. But Hurtt believes in himself and, more importantly, he believes in Bernard. That’s a good start.
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