Who The Hell is Uar Bernard? The 6-Foot-4, 306-Pound Freak Athlete With 6% Body Fat Who Was Drafted by The Eagles Despite Never Before Playing Football
I love this from the Eagles. I love the concept of drafting a guy like Uar Bernard in the 7th round. Less than 50% of players drafted in the 7th round wind up making the roster. Less than 10% ever develop into regular NFL starters. And only 1.5% of them become long-term roster players for the team who drafted them. My point is, the 7th round is a crap shoot. There is an extremely low chance the player (or players) your team selected in the last round of this year's NFL Draft will ever contribute to your team. So unless my team really really loves someone in the 7th round, I'd prefer they scour Africa every continent in the world, and take a wild swing on a freak athlete with ridiculous measurable who's never seen a football before in his life.
Honestly, the less familiar he is with American football the better. The more he doesn't know, the more I can convince myself he'll be great. If I see one video of him clumsily fumbling around with a pigskin, it's game over. I'll never be sold. But if you tell me you found a 21-year old Nigerian dude who's 6-foot-4, 300 pounds, has 6% body fat, and he's never touched an American football in his life??? Well shit... for all we know, he really could be Myles Garrett. Or maybe he's Randy Moss. Or maybe he's got a cannon for a right arm, and he's about to forever change the way we look at the QB position. The more of a mystery the guy is, the more my imagination can run wild.
This year's freak athlete mystery prospect goes by the name of Uar Bernard. He was discovered through the International Player Pathway Program. Awesome job growing the game Mr. Goodell. I've always said you've got your finger on the pulse of what the NFL needs – regular season games in Australia, and impossibly freakish international super athletes.
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Aside from not being a football player, Uar Bernard a dream prospect. Even beyond his measurables. Give me the guy from Nigeria who made it his mission to find a way out so that he could provide for his family after his father's death. That's the type of backstory you can bet on.
And I shouldn't make it sound like American football is some completely foreign concept to him. Sure, he's never played in an organized league. But he's been working his ass off to get to this point for years. Well… he's at least been lifting weights. And giving trees the business.
Uar Bernard wasn't the only low-experience, high-upside player from the NFL's International Pathway Program to join the Eagles this weekend. After going undrafted, Philadelphia signed Kenyan Rugby player Joshua Weru.
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Why not. This isn't the first time the Eagles have gone the International Player Pathway route. It worked out for them in 2018 when they drafted OT Jordan Mailata out of Australia. He wasn't a football player either, but was a second-team NFL All-Pro by 2024 (and officiating Lane Johnson's wedding by 2026).
So fuck it. It couldn't hurt to bring in a couple super athletes from similar backgrounds who've never played football for each other to lean on. Maybe they'll both work out. Maybe just one of them will work out. Maybe by the first pre-season game it will be abundantly clear that neither of these players have any business in the NFL. But I'll happily take a shot on low-risk, high-potential players like this any day. Let's see what these physical specimens have got.