Walker Leaves While Holcomb Joins

Mixed up in the trade for Spikes is the realization that Darwin Walker is gone and a new QB, Kelly Holcomb, is in the lineup.

Not to get too deep into now but trading for Holcomb in this deal shows that the Eagles aren't comfortable with just handing A.J. Feeley that back up job behind Donovan. It was an extremely dangerous move that let Jeff Garcia leave, one that I was not happy with, but understood.

Holcomb has been bounced around the NFL, a product of NFL Europe he has spent time on the Colt's, Brown's, and Bill's rosters. Primarily a back-up QB, sometimes thrown into the starting job to compete or fill in for an injured QB, Holcomb has never seen much success.

Most recently Holcomb was signed by the Bill's in 2005 as a veteran presence for young QB J.P. Losman to not only learn behind, but compete with. Though he did a decent job in 2005 throwing for 10 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, it was far from impressive and the team began to focus on the future with their hopes tied up in J.P. Losman.

There is no word out yet on what Holcomb's status will be on the team, it seems reasonable to predict that he will compete with Feeley for the 2nd string job. That job alone, scary enough as it is, is extremely important this season considering that there is always a good chance Donovan McNabb will not be healthy enough to start in Week 1. I was figuring that a draft pick would be spent on that #3 QB spot on the team, but with Holcomb around, that doesn't seem to be the case.

As for Darwin Walker, I thought he had a nice season last year but once Montae Reagor was signed, his job was in jeopardy. It was obvious that some defensive tackle had to leave, with simply not enough room for them all, but I was thinking that a trade would involve Sam Rayburn and he would be heading out on draft day. It makes sense that Walker was traded though, as something of value had to head out for the Bills to complete the deal for Spikes.

Great move on behalf of the Eagles, we now have veteran presence in places that we needed immediate help at and would not have been able to see a quick impact from in the draft. With Spikes on this roster, the '07 Eagles are better than the Eagles that lost to the Saints in the playoffs.

Huge Move For Spikes

Big news on the Eagles end, trading Darwin Walker and a 2008 late round pick to the Bills for LB Takeo Spikes and QB Kelly Holcomb. Unbelievable.

So far in free agency the Eagles have improved the roster by adding Kevin Curtis, Bethel Johnson, and Montae Reagor but still overall the losses of Jeff Garcia and Donte' Stallworth, made the '06 roster (with a healthy McNabb) better than the current '07 roster.

Now things are completely different.

There's no denying that Takeo is at the tail end of his career, a 1st round pick in 1998 he spent his first 5 years in Cincinnati and than the past 4 in Buffalo. Spikes has always been racking up tackles left and right (averaging 113 tackles during the starting 7 years of his career), while also disrupting the backfield with his blitzing ability.

More recently though, in 2005 he tore his achilles which ended his season in Week 3 against the Falcons. After that injury he came back in 2006 and some believe that he rushed back, never being fully recovered from the achilles tear and also battling a hamstring injury that kept him out of 4 games. So as of last season Spike's numbers have declined with age and injury, a fate that seems to happen to every player.

At 31 years old, Spikes doesn't have the athleticism that he possessed during his rookie season and early on in his career, but he also is far from finished. The two time Pro-Bowler in 2003 and 2004 now might not be as capable to bounce back from a game and an injury as much as he was before, but the experience that he has gained over his pro years are priceless.

No matter what, an aged Takeo Spikes much much better than the current starter at SAM LB, Dhani Jones. I have been dieing for someone to come in and replace Jones at some point in time but there just seemed to be no one out there that could fulfill the void we had at strong side LB. The questions that were posed regarding depth at linebacker are all answered now.

The Montae Reagor pick up helped the defense, he was an improvement, but no where near the answer to our defensive woes. I'm trying not to get caught up in the hype or the name of a veteran LB, but I honestly believe that Spikes is the answer to our linebacker problems. His presence alone will give Jeremiah Trotter the help at OLB that he has been desperate for.

Trotter is a very good player, one that works very well in Jim Johnson's system, but he can not do everything on his own. With Trot getting up in age, I think just about a month younger than Spikes, he needs guys around him that can make up for the steps he has lost.

The combination of Omar Gaither's fiery youth on the weakside with the strength and experience of Trot in the middle and Spikes on the strongside, should really impact this defense. This move is huge to me because we needed some answer as far as linebackers go and this deep into free agency it seemed the only way to get anyone would be through the draft. That alone was a lot of pressure, forcing a 1st round or maybe just 1st day pick into having to push Dhani Jones at SAM LB. Now there isn't any rush.

The needs on the team can be drafted but we know that we have a roster in place for Week 1 of the season. There still needs to be depth being Jeremiah Trotter and this addition puts Chris Gocong and Matt McCoy's jobs into even more of a mystery. As of right now though, things are looking good.

Getting Back To Normal

Andy Reid is going to return from his leave of absence from the franchise on Friday. The first day back will be started with an 11 a.m. press conference which has the potential to be interesting since we haven't heard from him for awhile, but its destined to be pretty dull considering it is an Andy Reid press conference.

After a crazy year that was full of strange events such as a 62 yard field goal and a 38 year old back up QB leading us to the playoffs, the strange occurrences didn't seem to halt going into the offseason as both of Coach Reid's sons were arrested on the same day in January in two different incidences.

The family problems forced Reid to take a temporary leave of absence in order to have more time to deal with these personal issues. The break that Andy took was not one that really distances him from the decisions that were being made, he was still calling the shots as far as acquisitions go and did plenty of work throughout free agency. The only real difference was that he was not at the Nova Care Complex on a daily basis, but he still remained in constant communications with the team.

Keep in mind that the players, excluding those rehabbing from injuries, haven't been at Nova Care either until this week when the voluntary conditioning program began. It is best now for the head coach to be present during this time, so its a positive that he will be more accessible to what is happening within the team, but it still wouldn't have been that much of an issues for a few more weeks.

It's good that Reid was given some time to handle what he needed to handle but now it's time to get down to business. These past events are just a prime example of the toll it takes on a family to have a father that is an NFL head coach. The time and dedication that it takes to win in this league is ridiculous and many families really sacrifice some important parts of their own lives for the good of the franchise. But the arrests of Britt and Garrett Reid show that many problems can arise when put in these circumstances.

In reality though the issues Reid had to deal with are strictly his business and nothing that the media really has a right to know too much about. Though the questions will fly in the press conference I'm sure that Andy will continually address them with an approach that he is keeping his private life private and it won't have an effect on his job. Up until this point, with the consistent success the Eagles have had, it's evident that no matter what has been going on in Reid's personal life, it hasn't affected his ability to perform at his job.

Reid's return to the team provides some more stability to the organization that was missing for a brief moment. With the acquisition of some new players like Kevin Curtis, Bethel Johnson, and Dontae Reagor, it's good for them to begin building a relationship with their new coach.

Now hopefully after this first press conference back, the questions will be addressed, and then everyone will move on and start focusing on the players on this team.

Changes To The Line

Defensive tackle Montae Reagor has agreed to terms with the Eagles on a 3 year $8.25 million deal, with $2 million guaranteed included. This move isn't a be all end all for solving the problems the defense faced last year but it really adds to the depth at DT.

With Reagor on board there is now some questions regarding some current DT's spots on the team. As of right now we have Mike Patterson, Darwin Walker, Broderick Bunkley, LaJuan Ramsey, and Sam Rayburn. Last season we went into the year with all 5 of these players on the roster and that continued as they all stayed healthy and split playing time. It was expected that all of the above guys would be back on the team this season, but with the addition of Reagor, someone has to give up their spot.

The focal point of the defense is the fact that we rotate defensive linemen so much. There is no such thing as a set starter, just because one player isn't listed in the starting lineup doesn't mean he will necessarily have much fewer snaps than a starting player, time is split pretty evenly in an effort to keep everyone's legs fresh.

The only man in this DT group with a guaranteed spot on the team is Mike Patterson. Currently he is a rising star, a 1st round pick in 2005, numbers wise he actually performed better in '05 considering he had 3.5 sacks but you really can't look at a DT's numbers to evaluate them. The statistics don't lie but Patterson had much more consistency throughout the '06 season and he has showed tremendous potential, but he still has a lot of learning to do. But with Patterson signing a 7 year contract extension back in November, he just solidified his position on this team.
Outside of Patterson we have veteran Darwin Walker had one of his best years in Philadelphia this past season, rebounding from the way he struggled after a thigh contusion restricted his play for a big chunk of 2005. Walker's status going into this season was pretty up in the air because he had a hard time in the previous season and it was thought that he might have lost a step going into, what will now be, his 8th year. But Walker is a force along the line, in the same category as a guy like Reagor, much more a pass rusher than a run stuffer.

I think I've talked about Broderick Bunkley enough up until this point. Right now he is just a name, with practically nothing coming out of his rookie season except for a little experience gained, he has a lot to live up to. Right now he has started off on the right foot by participating in the teams offseason conditioning program, a good sign that he quite possibly has learned from his training camp debacle. Despite not doing anything last year his position on the team is about as solid as Patterson's. Considering a 1st round pick was spent on him he's going to be given a nice amount of cushion to work his way onto the team and hopefully this pick ends up paying off.
The question marks more so lie in LaJuan Ramsey and Sam Rayburn. These two battled time a little bit throughout the year, despite the fact that Ramsey seemed to be favored in training camp, once the year began Rayburn started to see more time. Neither of them saw a lot of snaps but in their limited opportunities Ramsey was at least the flashiest of the two considering he caught a tipped pass for an interception off of Brett Favre.

I absolutely loved Ramsey all throughout training camp and the preseason, considering he was a footnote in comparison to what I had expected from Bunkley, he really surprised me. Though Rayburn did have a great year in 2004, in the past 2 years he has never even gotten close to those numbers again. It seems that Rayburn's '04 year was more a product of teams not knowing him well enough and he received a lot less attention from offensive lines considering he was playing alongside Corey Simon a lot.

Last season we saw that once Bunkley was selected, the team decided to trade DT Hollis Thomas to the Saints so they could move up a few spots and select OG Max Jean-Guilles. I have a feeling that is going to be very similar to what will happen to Sam Rayburn within the next few months. I'm expecting LaJuan Ramsey to make the team and Rayburn not even make his way into training camp.

If by chance all 6 guys, including Reagor, are all still on this roster by the start of training camp the real roster battle is most likely going to be between Ramsey and Rayburn. Still though we have to keep in mind that Reagor's position isn't much guaranteed on the team either, if it arises in training camp that he is still facing affects from last years car accident or that he just isn't fitting onto the team, the Eagles won't hesitate to cut him. I just can't see that happening.

DT Reagor Visits

Free agent defensive tackle Montae Reagor is scheduled to visit the Nova Care Complex Tuesday and Wendsday of this week. An 8 year veteran, Reagor spent 4 years with the Broncos after being selected in the 2nd round and than 4 years with the Indianapolis Colts. Though he was on the roster this past season he didn't participate in the Super Bowl run as he was involved in a car crash in October which prevented him from finishing the rest of the season.

When looking at Reagor's credentials it's no real surprise that the Eagles liked him enough to bring him in for a look. He seems to be a speed, pass rushing defensive tackle, to fit right alongside the quicker model of defensive lineman that the Eagles seem to like. With 10.5 sacks between the 04-05 seasons, his speed skills are pretty impressive.

The biggest question regarding Reagor is if he is fully recovered from the car accident he was in last year. If the Eagles sign him, that isn't even something that I'm going to worry about because I know that they will put him through a rigroous work out to make sure that he is back at 100% before they woudl even put an offer on the table. If word arises tomorrow that he has signed with the team, than we will know that there is a big possiblity he still has some physical limitations because of the accident.

On one hand Reagor is a player that will fit perfectly into the Eagles scheme of bringing in smaller sized guys, (not to say that 6'3" 285 pounds is small) but he isn't a run stuffing DT like say, a Corey Simon. Reagor is built to play as a pass rushing specialist that is going to break down the center of that O-line and get to the QB, not wait to plug up holes that the running back is trying to get through.

That is where I'm a little confused in the situation because after last year when week in and week out our linebackers were getting manhandled, not having much of an opportunity to do much of anything because they were constantly trying to shed blocks, you would think the front office would want to invest in some size up front. With the lack of talent we have at linebacker the defensive line needs to do everything in their power to keep the O-lineman from getting upfield and pushing the linebackers around. But we are sticking to the mentality of having an undersized group of guys who use finesse and speed to get to the QB. The problem was that last year, pretty much once Jevon Kearse went down (excluding the sack filled day we had against the Cowboys in Week 5) the line had trouble at getting to the QB.

When the line is built to disrupt the passer, they have to do just that because otherwise the opposing offense is just going to run the ball all day and, like we saw last year (Joseph Addai...4 touchdowns) the defense will get trampeled.

The Eagles are obviously going to stick to the "speed wins" mentality, with that being the case it is good to look into a pass rush specialist like Reagor. I guess at this point we money already spent on guys like Trent Cole, Juqua Thomas, and Mike Patterson, logically no one is going to change their mind as far as whether the D-line should be big and run stuffing or small and fast. Jim Johnson is commited to bringing the heat to an opposing QB, forcing him to get out of the pocket quickly and get rid of the ball before he gets sacked. With that being the plan lets hope it works the way we saw the defense create havoc early on in the '06 season, having Jevon Kearse should definitly help that cause.

So far this offseason we have had Kevin Curtis, Ron Dayne, and Ryan Fowler all visit the Nova Care Complex, of those players 1 was signed (Curtis) and one almost signed, had there not been a lapse in communication (Fowler.) It seems when the Eagles bring a player in they are pretty serious about their possible chance of playing on this team, it isn't just a casual meeting. Just the fact that Reagor made a visit to the team gives me hope that he might actually be signed. If that would happen he would be a nice addition to the rotation.

'06 Rookies Start Already

There are names at the beginning of every season that seem to die out as the year goes on. Some of the big questions in training camp last season were rookies like Chris Gocong, Jeremy Bloom, and Broderick Bunkley. By the end of 2006 those names had faded away while the focus was on current stars who were leading us into the playoffs.

Now that the games are over and there has been some time to comprehend what happened this past season some of the questions that were not answered last year are analyzed again. The players that didn't make their mark on this team for one reason or another are given another chance. The best way for them to start the year off right is by participating in the teams offseason conditioning program and that is exactly what many of the 2nd year players began this week.

Broderick Bunkley was an enormous disappointment his rookie season simply because of the way that he missed a huge portion of training camp with a hold out, forcing him to come into camp not only late, but out of shape. He was behind from day 1 and he never caught up, so a conditioning program at Nova Care is something that should be extremely beneficial to him. After missing so much time last year, I think he's aware how important this offseason is for him if he wants to have an impact on this 2007 season.

Third round selection, converted linebacker Chris Gocong, was someone who everyone hoped would at least push Dhani Jones a little bit at the SAM spot during training camp. There was no real expectation for him to start, he was facing a huge challenge already by having to convert from a defensive end, which he played in college, to an NFL linebacker. So it came as no surprise when he wasn't much competition for Jones, but the problems really arose when he got bit by the injury bug and was battling a stinger injury for weeks.

That stinger eventually put Gocong on IR and he rehabbed in his rookie season instead of doing what would have been best, getting some playing time. Now Gocong has an even harder battle to face knowing that he not only still is in the transition to an NFL linebacker but he will be entering his 2nd pro season without any experience from his rookie year. Hopefully the time that Gocong spend not in uniform was time that he used efficiently to get healthy and focus on this upcoming year. Gocong too has begun the process of working towards a successful '07 by participating in the offseason conditioning program.

Another rookie, Jeremy Bloom, is someone who has kept a pretty low profile ever since his rookie year ended on IR. He too was is in the conditioning program and it's evident that he is yet another player from the '06 draft class that has a lot left to prove. Up until this point the only thing that has gained Bloom any notoriety is his modeling and Olympic skier resume, he is a long way away from being a professional football player. But this offseason is definitely the most important part of his entire NFL career, if he isn't able to get things together for this season and get in proper football shape, he won't be around for a 3rd chance.

Someone who received a lot of attention when he was drafted but than slipped into oblivion was OT Winston Justice. The USC standout who protected Matt Leinart for many years seemed like a steal in the 2nd round but with not much opportunity to play behind book ends William Thomas and Jon Runyan, he pretty much spent the entire year on the bench. He is someone who could have a very bright future on the team but he's going to have to wait some time before a real chance arises. I might be crazy but I honestly think that William Thomas really should watch his back during training camp this year, he had a rocky season and there's a much more youthful Justice right on his tail.

Now mixed up in this group of rookie season flops were Jason Avant and Omar Gaither, two players who did have productive 1st years. Gaither provides a lot of hope into the future of this linebacking group that lacks a lot of talent beyond Jeremiah Trotter but he still has a ton of work to do. As for Avant, he showed a tiny bit with 7 catches for 68 yards and a touchdown but was pretty much upstaged, from training camp onwards, by undrafted free agent Hank Baskett.

For success to be achieved, players need to invest in the offseason and those that show up at offseason conditioning programs do just that. They make a statement to the team that they are commited to getting better and they give themselves the best chance to win a starting job when the season begins.

Buckhalter Given 2 Years

After much uncertainty on if the Eagles would do much of anything in free agency, over the past 2 days they have made moves to help the offense. Yesterday it was the news that I am still ecstatic about, the signing of former Rams wide receiver Kevin Curtis to a 6 year deal. Today the team signed Correll Buckhalter to a 2 year contract, putting to rest rumors that players like Chris Brown and Ron Dayne were going to come to Philadelphia.

On Thursday former Giant, Bronco, Texan running back Ron Dayne visited the Nova Care Complex, with obvious hopes of joining the Eagles. The former Heisman trophy winner has led an extremely disappointing career when you consider the potential New York saw when they drafted him in 2000. In his visit to Philadelphia, Eagles fans were very intrigued because of the size he would have brought to the backfield, though no taller than Correll Buckhalter at 5'10", Dayne has a lot more bulk on his frame and is more of a smash mouth runner.

The "big back" theory that some people believe in would have been answered with the signing of Dayne but the front office stayed true to their philosophies and decided that he wasn't the kind of running back they were looking for. So despite taking a quick glance around at the free agent market, they chose to resign Correll Buckhalter who has been on the team for the past 7 years, though it doesn't feel like it considering he missed 3 entire seasons due to injury.

It's actually shocking how loyal the front office has been to Buckhalter throughout his career. Despite getting in trouble on South Street in 2001 and being suspended for one game the coaches didn't turn on him, and 3 season ending injuries later, the team still hasn't turned on him. He's received a lot of support, surgery after surgery, and the fact that he was resigned to a 2 year contract just shows that the franchise feels he's a valuable asset to the team.

Though he isn't a Jerome Bettis in the sense that he can consistently pound the ball in goalline situations, Buck provides a balance to the running attack behind Westbrook. Just getting him 5 or 6 touches a game, gives Westbrook a little bit of a break and it's good to catch the defense off guard by mixing up the running style, player to player.

With names out there like Corey Dillion, some fans will be disappointed with Buckhalter coming back, especially considering that he is so injury prone. I think it was a solid move because Correll is already comfortable here, he has a niche in this offense, there was no need to bring in someone new who is barely going to see the ball anyway. Of course it would have been a fun pickup to have Corey Dillion backing up Westbrook but there's not even a point for all of the time people spend talking about back up running backs on this team. The main focus should be whether or starting back, Westbrook, even gets enough touches.

Big Move: Kevin Curtis Signs

Finally, something seems to have gone right for once. The front office stepped up to the plate after sitting on their hands for the majority of free agency. Important moves in retaining players like Mikell and Juqua Thomas have been made so far but with the loss of Donte' Stallworth to the New England Patriots there needed to be an investment at WR. So the Eagles did just that in signing WR Kevin Curtis to a 6 year $32 million contract. Thank god.

I wanted Curtis on this team since his name first came to the surface during his March 9th visit to the Nova Care Complex but with other teams out there competing for him, I thought we had no chance of bringing him to Philadelphia. It's being said that the final decision came down to Curtis choosing between the Eagles and the Vikings.

This investment into a WR, especially with it being a contract lasting 6 years, has to instill some confidence into this offense. On Wednesday night the Philadelphia media was buzzing regarding a 10 second clip of Donovan McNabb at an event, when asked, commenting on the fact that he really hasn't had a consistent receiver here to play with him.

Though I don't agree with players using the media as a way to voice frustrations, Donovan's words had to have had an impact on the front office going out and getting a deal done with Curtis. I mean, if you just go down the line, McNabb is right in his assessment. The longest tenured Eagles wide receiver on this team is Greg Lewis who's been here for 4 seasons but plays such a limited role on the offense. As far as starting wideouts go, the depth chart has constantly changed year to year with Charles Johnson, Torrance Small, James Thrash, Todd Pinkston, Terrell Owens, Donte' Stallworth, to now Reggie Brown and Hank Baskett.

Curtis provides the same deep threat and balance to the offense that Donte' Stallworth did here, but without the injury history. As much as I love the physicality of both Brown and Baskett, neither of them have that lightening speed that can catch a defense off guard. Curtis has the ability to really expose a defensive back and connect with McNabb for some big plays.

Taking a glance at Curtis's 4 year career up until this point, he saw the most success in 2005 when he had 60 receptions for 801 yards and 6 touchdowns. The following season with a coaching change and the offenses new concentration on running the ball, his numbers declined to 40 for 479 yards and 4 touchdowns. The change that happened in 2006 definitely had an influence on Curtis deciding to sign with Philadelphia because he knows this team loves to pass, no matter how great Brian Westbrook is we are always going to be a pass first team, and he wants to be in a place where he can showcase his talent.

The move of bringing in Kevin Curtis is going to reconfirm to people that the front office knows what they are doing, if there is a free agent out there that they find worthy of their time they will bring them in. I'm loving this because it creates a little excitement for the fans while also proving to the players, like McNabb, that the front office is going to give them the tools they need to achieve great things.

Wait...The Titans?

So after all of that, there was some confusion during the Ryan Fowler deal and he now has agreed to the Titans on an offer that the Cowboys have 7 days to match.

Apparently due to a mis communication from the Titan's G.M. while he was handling a family emergency, Fowler and his agent thought that Tennessee had proposed their final offer and Fowler was set to choose between the Eagles and Titan's offers, he chose the Eagles.

But after those plans were announced it was made clear to Fowler that the Titans had not yet set forth their final offer and once that offer was discovered it was more than the Eagles were giving and Fowler changed his mind to sign with the Titans.

Not a big deal to me. We need an investment at linebacker in one way shape or form but Fowler wasn't the only answer out there.

Waiting Around

UPDATE: The Titans have topped our proposed deal with Fowler, now making him a Titan unless the Cowboys match that offer in the next 7 days.

A different kind of situation: the Eagles agreed to contract terms with linebacker Ryan Fowler on a 4 year offer sheet today. What does this mean? He's a restricted free agent, as opposed to an unrestricted free agent like say, Donte' Stallworth was, so his current team (the Cowboys) have 7 days to match any offer that is given to him.

So right now this process requires both parties, Fowler and the Eagles, to wait and see what Dallas chooses to do. Fowler has said that he is hoping the Cowboys do not match the offer and it is expected that they will not, so nothing is set in stone yet, but all signs point to Fowler being an Eagle.

After years of waiting on the sidelines between set starters in Dallas, Fowler is itching to start and he feels that he has the best opportunity to do so here. I was at first expecting him to just come in and fill the role as a special teams player and reserve linebacker behind Jeremiah Trotter, basically the same position he had with the Cowboys, but that was before I heard of Fowler's sheer determination to start.

Now if Fowler is saying to the media that he wants to come to Philadelphia because it means that he can start, you would think that means that during negotiations the Eagles made it clear to him that there is a starting spot available to him on this team. If that is the case than the starting role is obviously not at middle linebacker, it would be at WILL or SAM where he says he is capable of playing.

I'm thinking that Fowler is going to be brought into this linebacking group where there is competition needed all over the place. My expectation is that Omar Gaither will be the starting WILL linebacker once the season begins, with Matt McCoy as his back up, but there is plenty of time for things to change. No starting job is going to be provided to Fowler but at 2 of the 3 linebacking positions there are no definite starters and he could work his way to the top of that depth chart.

Hopefully, for this teams sake, Dhani Jones is not the starting SAM LB in 2007, he can't be. With Fowler being here, he could force Jones right out of that top role, but without knowing anything about him yet, he also could be cut in training camp.

At this point I'm completely blind as to what Fowler's capabilities are as a linebacker, he never was really given the chance to prove himself in Dallas but the situation is going to be much different here. During last year's training camp we have plenty of guys clamoring for the WILL and SAM spots, between Gaither, Greg Richmond, McCoy, Dhani Jones, Dedrick Roper, and Tank Daniels. The problem was that there was an extreme lack of experience throughout that entire group and no one really stepped up to the plate for various reasons.

That sloppy showing by the linebackers in training camp just progressed into the regular season. Matt McCoy and Dhani Jones were named WILL and SAM in Week 1 but by the end of the season Omar Gaither had replaced Matt McCoy.

Though Gaither did a nice job, there is still plenty of progress that he needs to make and so all of the doors are open, no one should feel anywhere near comfortable with their starting job. Right now Fowler is just another player thrown into that big mix of guys ranging from probably a rookie that we haven't even drafted yet to a veteran like Jones.

No one stands out to me yet besides Omar who I believe can achieve a lot of success on this team with the right mentoring. So as much as I would love to think that this newest signing is a real answer to our linebacking needs, we have no idea. Fowler hasn't shown anyone what he really can do yet so we have yet to find out whether that is good or bad.

At least now we are seeing the franchise making a mild attempt, at least an attempt at all, to improve our linebackers.

Donte' and Hood Both Move On

The two prime Eagles players that were eligible as free agents this year, Donte' Stallworth and Rod Hood, both signed with other teams this weekend.

The Stallworth deal isn't a huge surprise, it's the same thing that we were told happened, much earlier in the week, but the details on the contract are different. According to PFT.com, the deal Stallworth ended up signing is a 1 year contract with an option for a 2nd year and then an option for 4 more years.

Basically the Patriots designed the deal perfectly, taking into account the risk they are making by signing Stallworth. As previously talked about, there is a little uneasiness with teams signing Stallworth because of his injury history along with the fact that he is part of the league's substance abuse program. But New England is really making out well in the fact that they get Tom Brady a very good receiver, something he has never really had, and at the same time they are protecting themselves a little bit with the way they structured the contract.

In the beginning I thought there was at least a small chance we could get Stallworth back on this team because the market seemed pretty quiet but early this week things really heated up as Donte' made his rounds to New England, Tennessee, and Miami. When the Eagles signed Bethel Johnson and brought in Kevin Curtis for a visit, it was obvious that they had moved on to life without Donte'. The market was just too competitive for the amount of money the Eagles were looking to spend on a wide receiver.

This situation frustrates me beyond the fact that we are losing a good player because it watching quality players leave the franchise can't instill much confidence in Donovan McNabb, who is going to have a tough enough time this year as it is. There's no reason to rant and rave about this decision but this forces us into really needing Kevin Curtis on this team.

Curtis is no Stallworth but he is a very good player and he showed in 2005 with 60 catches for 801 yards, 6 touchdowns that he can be in the same caliber as Stallworth. The positive with Curtis as opposed to Stallworth is that he stays healthy, missing 1 game in the past 3 years. When given the opportunity in '05, Curtis produced, when the Rams started handing the ball more to Stephen Jackson in '06, his numbers dropped. I don't want to get my hopes up but Curtis is the answer.

Having Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis start on this team would provide the same dynamic that we had between Stallworth and Brown. Curtis provides that same speedy deep threat that just opens the field up even more for Reggie Brown. Those two would be a great combination in this west coast offense.

Kevin Curtis is waiting on getting a new agent right now after firing big time agent Tom Condon last week. He was eligible to find new representation on Saturday and once that happens he will look over the visits he made this past week and make a decision. There are reports that offers have been made by the Vikings and Lions with the Giants also expressing interest. The biggest paycheck is always what is going to lure a player to your city but out of those franchises we at least have the upper hand in being a team that has been competitive for a long time with a lot more stability than a place like Detroit.

The other player that left for another city was Rod Hood who made his way to the Arizona Cardinals. There was no expectation of Hood staying around, it was great that we were even able to keep him here for the 2006 season because he is a player talented enough to start. Hood was a great nickleback on this team and had he really been with any other organization he would have gotten to start years ago, but with the stability we have in Sheppard and Brown, there was nowhere for Hood to really be.

Not only was he, I believe, the best nickleback in the league for us but he often stepped into the starting role when Sheppard battled ankle injuries. I give Hood credit for sticking around as long as he did, he had every right to demand a trade or request to be cut so he could go fill a starting role somewhere else but he just let things play out. He knew his free agency day would come when he would get to cash in on a big paycheck, so he did just that and is now going to be on an Arizona Cardinals team with enormous potential.

The Eagles addressed his future absence earlier in the week with the signing of William James to a 1 year deal. There will be some competition between Joselio Hanson as well to fill in that nickleback spot. Though it would have been great to keep Hood around, there was no way we could pay him the starting money he deserved but yet have him not be a full blown starter. The situation we have now though is set between Hanson who emerged last year and James who saw some playing time in an Eagles uniform at the end of last season.

Two great players, each leaving the Eagles to go to another team. It was possible to keep Stallworth around, someone just had to pay up, and that wasn't going to happen. The Hood deal was pretty much out of the Eagles control, it was just his time to move on where I'm sure he will really succeed.

As for the remaining Eagles roster, just sign Kevin Curtis and these losses won't sting as much.

James Signs; Fowler Visits

Another small but important move was made today in the signing of CB William James to a 1 year contract. James was brought in during the 2006 season in October when the team was battling injuries to key players in the secondary such as Lito Sheppard and Rod Hood. He saw limited playing time but the potential he showed to the coaches led him to being brought back for another season.

With the likelihood that Hood will leave to start for another team during this free agency period, we need to acquire some more depth in the secondary, so this is a step in the right direction.

Along with this move, LB Ryan Fowler of the Dallas Cowboys is in town for a visit. Fowler's situation is a little different from most free agents in that he is a restricted free agent, having been tendered the lowest level salary. That means that if the Eagles offered him a contract the Cowboys would have 7 days to match the deal.

The fact that a linebacker is being brought in to visit makes me very happy because that is such a weak part on this team that has not really been addressed for a long time. Yes, the Eagles have invested first day picks in Omar Gaither and Matt McCoy over the past 2 seasons and they spent the money to keep Jeremiah Trotter around, bring back Shawn Barber, and sign Dhani Jones in 2005, but these are all currently second tier players.

Gaither and McCoy are both at the beginning of their careers, with Gaither showing a lot of hope for the future, but there needs to be money spent on someone who will make an immediate impact. Not to say that Fowler is the answer to all of our problems, he is pretty inexperienced over the past 3 years of his career, originally signing with the Cowboys as an unrestricted free agent and earning most of his playing time on special teams. But still, any depth at the position is necessary as I hope there is an active effort to remove Dhani Jones from his starting position on the team.

Not to get ahead of myself, but if Fowler was signed, he would spend his time behind Jeremiah Trotter at MLB. When Gaither was drafted it was expected that he would be a reserve middle linebacker but as the year started to unfold, it was seen that Omar's athleticism was being wasted by having him just play special teams and sit on the bench for most of the game. After weeks of a struggling run defense the move was made to bench Matt McCoy in favor of Omar Gaither at weakside linebacker. It was originally said that McCoy was sitting out because of an injury, but he never ended up returning to that starting role for the remainder of the season.

So McCoy's job is up in the air but it seems obvious that Gaither should be the starting WILL LB at the beginning of next season. With that being the case, there needs to be at least a decent player behind Trotter, especially considering with every year he gets older the chances of him suffering a serious injury increase. We've seen before how poorly this team plays without Trotter so there needs to be money spent on a quality back-up barring any injury to Trot.

Curtis Visiting Friday

No time to write right now but Bethel Johnson signed a 1 year contract today and Kevin Curtis who played 4 years with the Rams (a career of 136 catches for 1714 yards and 12 touchdowns) is scheduled to come visit on Friday.

Hm....

At the same time PFT.com is reporting that Stallworth has recieved offers from the Eagles (a 1 year 1.5 million deal), Patriots (6 year $32 million), and Titans, along with new interest from the 49ers.

Seems like the Eagles have pretty much made their decision on Stallworth's situation. Can Curtis and Johnson make up for what we're losing in Stallworth? I don't think so, but bringing Curis in couldn't hurt, it's a necessity if Stallworth isn't resigned.

Bethel Johnson Signs

Wide receiver/kick returner Bethel Johnson was signed to a 1 year contract today. The most intriguing part of this move for me is just that it sures up our kick return position a little bit, one that has been a lack luster part of this team since the departure of Brian Mitchell a few years ago.

An athlete recognized for his speed, Johnson was a 2nd round pick out of Texas A&M by the Patriots back in 2003 and he spent 3 years there before being traded to the Saints where he was eventually cut and picked up in October by the Vikings last season.

He hopefully will provide a little competition at the wide receiver position but his average to below average career numbers up until this point, 39 catches for 606 yards and 4 touchdowns over 4 seasons, don't instill a lot of hope in me.

To me this move really doesn't have much to do with Johnson's receiving skills, the selling point had to have been his kick return skills where he has averaged 24.6 yards per return and 2 touchdowns over his career. Hopefully the experience he has at the special teams position will evoke a little competition at the spot where we currently have many of our former KR's with uncertain futures.

The primary guys who handled kick returns last year were Mahe and Wynn. Reno Mahe who previously was just a punt returner but was asked to fill the role of KR as well last season averaged 22.2 yards per return last season and is currently an unrestricted free agent, yet to have been signed by another team. Dexter Wynn who spent some time off and on the team isn't going to be on the roster next year.

The other question mark among those guys is '06 5th round pick, Jeremy Bloom, yet the Olympic skier. Up until this point Bloom's celebrity is really the only thing that has gained him notoriety on the team. He spent the majority of training camp, ever since going down to Arizona to work out with McNabb in the offseason, rehabbing a hamstring injury. The hamstring was a problem throughout the entire preseason and it eventually led to his placement on Injured Reserve in August. His long journey towards playing football after retiring from skiing was only prolonged as it was determined that his time spent not on the football field should help him in getting back in football shape, with a main concern being that he had to rebuild some strength in his ankles.

The Eagles are at least smart enough to not have us go into training camp with all of the duties resting on the shoulders of virtually a rookie who hasn't played football since 2003.

Who Do You Believe?

AN UPDATE ON THE UPDATE!

Ok, this is starting to get ridiculous. Now there are reports that the first report of Stallworth signing with the Patriots, is untrue. YES! This is good for now because at least the book on Donte' is not yet completely closed, but I still am not able to gain much hope from the situation.

After analysing a life without Donte' and now realizing there might still be life with Donte', it's a bit of a relief...for now.

Profootballtalk.com is reporting that despite Comcast Sportsnet's website saying that they have confirmed reports from Drew Rosenhaus's, office that the Stallworth deal is done, they say they have personally talked to Drew and he said "There is no deal, and nothing is imminent."

I feel like the quote should probably say "There is no deal...yet" but still, I at least get to be happy for a few more hours.

Stallworth is planning on taking his time to make this decision with scheduled trips still ahead to Tennessee and Miami. A decision is not expected from him until the end of the week.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Almost immediately after I was done writing about Stallworth, I received news from local Philadelphia radio station SportsTalk 950 (the alternative to listening to idiots like Cataldi and Eskin) that Stallworth inked a 6 year, $32 million deal with the Patriots.

So my hope that the Eagles would have extended an offer good enough to compete with the ones that other teams were offering Donte' was pretty short lived.

This is not only going to anger a lot of Eagles fans but it's going to cause yet another scramble throughout the rest of this offseason for "getting the Eagles better WR's." I feel like we just shut everyone up when we signed Donte' at the beginning of the season, giving the team some confidence at the WR position, but now we're back where we started.

The Stallworth experiment was fun while it lasted, now we're currently looking at a roster full of still young, a little more experienced than last year, wide receivers. The line up of Reggie Brown, Hank Baskett, Jason Avant, and Greg Lewis is back, nothing flashy but hopefully able to get the job done.

Despite massive scrambling among most fans, I wasn't nervous heading into last season with Brown and Baskett as our starting WR's, especially because I didn't feel like there were any other options. There was as much a lack of talent in last year's free agent WR group as there is this year but now seeing that we let a guy slip right through our fingers in Stallworth, it makes the situation harder to handle.

Last year I saw that the guys we had on the roster were the best we could get, it's not like we could figure out some crazy way to trade for a Steve Smith or Chad Johnson, it looked like there was no one available for us to get until the Stallworth trade surfaced. Though the Eagles could have made it a lot easier on themselves by signing Stallworth at the beginning of training camp, when it was made clear he was on the trading block, as opposed to the end of camp, we'll never know, but still we ended up with Donte'.

This time around though we might be a little better off since the two WR's that were rookies last season, Avant and Baskett, both saw some significant playing time. Also the flashes of brilliance we had seen in Reggie Brown in 2005 developed as he had a nice 816 yard, 8 touchdown season. Still though, it was easier for all of those guys to make plays when Stallworth was on the other side of the field drawing some attention as a deep threat. Not to give Donte' too much credit for making everyone else better but with his speed he definitely added another element to the offense that is irreplaceable.

It's going to be tough to see Stallworth catching passes from Tom Brady in New England where he is bound to be successful. It's a little easier letting Michael Lewis go to San Fran and Jeff Garcia to the Bucs because I just don't see them seeing that much success on those teams (but what do I know, that was what I thought about Derrick Burgess going to the Raiders as well...27 sacks later he has proved me wrong.)

Now with the franchise letting a quality receiver leave, there needs to be an attempt to replace him. Again there are not really any options out there but at least a decent draft pick should be spend on the position because I'm not all that excited about another training camp like last year. It's not too fun to sit in the scorching hot sun and try to find some positives in guys like Bill Sampy, Mike Gasperson, and J.J. Outlaw who are all vying for the last spot on the WR depth chart.

We're facing yet another case of a player leaving this team to go cash in on a big pay check somewhere else, but just because we're used to it does not mean that we accept it.

We Want Stallworth

UPDATE: Surprise surprise, Stallworth signed a $32 million 6-year contract with the New England Patriots. PFT.com was wrong, the local Boston radio stations were correct. Not cool.

All eyes and ears are pinned to what is going to develop in the Donte' Stallworth situation. As of right now Donte' Stallworth is visiting the Patriots, than Titans, and finally the Dolphins. There were reports surfacing out of local Boston radio stations that Stallworth had agreed to terms on a 6 year $32 million contract with the Pats, but PFT.com is reporting that through a league source, the rumors of a Stallworth and New England deal are currently false.

This game that we are playing right now is one of trying to determine who is telling us the truth, a dance of distinguishing rumors from facts. ESPN.com is saying that the Eagles have extended a contract offer to Donte', but there are no details given.

I wrote earlier about the fact that I never expect the Eagles to do much in free agency, so I haven't set myself up for dissapointment. At this point I was frustrated with the team's decision on letting Garcia go but in the grand scheme of things, it's not that huge of a deal, I don't believe that the missing link between Philadelphia and a Super Bowl ring is Jeff Garcia.

But there is obvious anger throughout the city with people's preconceived idea that this franchise is not commited to winning, so in response to that the Eagles need to go a little outside of their comfort zone and resign Donte' Stallworth.

I don't actually expect a deal to be done for a few reasons. First of all, this is the Eagles and as we know it they aren't that inclined to give anyone a big pay check, especially when it comes to free agency. They often extend player's current contracts but a lot of times when they finally let it come down to the wire and the player has a chance to test the free agency market, it's usually the end of their time in this city.

Hopefully that is not the case this time around because I feel that despite there being a definite risk in re-signing Stallworth, especially with the new information that he is enrolled in the league's substance abuse program, it is worth it for this team to take the risk. The negatives about Stallworth are pretty evident, in New Orleans there was some chatter about his attitude and lack of a work ethic, we didn't see that during his first year here, but usually things of that nature wouldn't resurface while the player's working on a new team and only under a 1 year deal.

Among those potential off the field issues, on the field Stallworth seems to have a problem with staying healthy. There were issues with his hamstring's while with the Saints and those same issues seemed to transfer over to Philadelphia as he missed 4 games last year due to injury.

The enticing thing about Stallworth is obviously his speed. Though his hands are questionable at times, he never has trouble getting open and in just 5 full games played with Donovan McNabb he put together 21 catches for 443 yards and 3 touchdowns. The duo did not have much time to work on their chemistry together as Stallworth came to town right before the season started but it did not take long for the two to get on the same page.

Stallworth's 2006 season as a whole was productive, but would have been much better if he had been healthy enough to play in all 16 games. His 38 grabs for 725 yards and 5 touchdowns were not remarkable but his presence on the field helped the younger guys like Baskett and Reggie Brown emerge.

The city wants Stallworth back, I feel that he wants to be back on this team, but with the Eagles front office you just can't rely upon that happening. Maybe things will change, just this once.

Another Slow Free Agency

So...what have we done? Anything?

Free agency is often the most frustrating time of the offseason for Eagles fans because they often try and convince themselves that big moves will be made, despite history showing that our front office isn't big fans of free agency. While people see the Patriots, usually a very mild mannered team in free agency, go out and sign Adalius Thomas among others, they get frustrated that no big moves are being made in Philadelphia.

It seems like everyone else is out at the party while we're stuck at home, waiting in front of SportsCenter for any news to come across the screen about our Eagles. Most people see this approach as the Eagles not being committed to winning a championship, I don't feel that's the case. I've always understood that a Super Bowl team is not built through free agency, so it never bothers me that we usually sit on our hands throughout the entire process. When we have ventured out to sign big free agents, like heading into the 2004 season when we picked up Jevon Kearse, T.O., and Dhani Jones, none of those picks seemed to have panned out.

Hopefully Kearse will come back strong from his knee injury and perform at the level his salary indicates he should, but up until this point he has been a disappointment when you see how much money he is making. We all know what went down with T.O., and as for Dhani Jones, the only time I think of him now is when I'm trying to figure out how we can pick someone up to replace him this offseason.

The best free agent signing this team has made under Andy Reid was bringing Jon Runyan in from the Titans in 2000. At the time he cashed in on a big free agent contract and it made sense, considering he has been such a substantial part of our offensive line from that day on. But other than that, the ways we have been successful this time of year have been in resigning our own guys to contracts.

Yes we have let big names leave the team such as Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor, Jeremiah Trotter, and Hugh Douglas, but in all of those instances, we were correct in letting the player go.

After Trot's stint in Washington, when he returned to the team for the 2004 season he was extremely successful. The following offseason he was a free agent again and he entertained a few offers, even making a visit to Kansas City, but he accepted a smaller pay check to stay in Philadelphia. The same type of situation happened last year with Jon Runyan, the Eagles recognized that he was a priority of this team and resigned him to a long term contract.

Most often we don't have to be that active in free agency, even in resigning our own guys, because the front office is very good at locking players up early in their careers to prevent them from hitting those free agency waters as long as possible. Right now that can be seen with Shawn Andrews, Reggie Brown, Trent Cole, and the list goes on as young players that have already been signed to extensions after their original rookie contracts. Prior to the start of this season we made sure to provide Brian Dawkins with a contract extension so that way he wasn't going be a free agent at this time.

The Eagles make moves, the thing is that they do it all season long, they don't just wait around to sign players during the offseason.

In these past few days we have signed Quintin Mikell to a 4 year deal, Juqua Thomas to a 5 year deal, and A.J. Feeley got a contract extension. No huge deals, nothing that exciting, but these are all moves that need to be made to keep the core of this team intact.

Mikell is going to be competing with Sean Considine for the starting SS spot and along with that he has been a dominant force on special teams over the years. It's very important to keep guys like Mikell around. As for Juqua Thomas he has been a big surprise after being signed as a free agent in 2005. With Kearse out last year, N.D. Kalu going down the year before, Jerome McDougle facing injuries every year, there have been openings for Thomas to prove himself. His success at capitalizing on those opportunities gave the front office the confidence to sign him to a long term deal.

I don't let the lack of action in free agency bother me because I understand what the priorities of these team are. I would love to see some money be spent on an outside linebacker and expect that if Buckhalter is not resigned than attention will be paid to the help needed at 2nd string running back. Despite all of that though, the resonating priority right now is signing Donte' Stallworth, but my hope of that happening has been steadily declining with stories emerging of New England's interest in him.

Along with Stallworth we still have some important guys in Rod Hood, Correll Buckhalter, and Shawn Barber who are free agents as well.

Banner Lets Garcia Move On

The news of A.J. Feeley being signed to a 3 year contract extension immediately caused waves around Philadelphia. The talk that came with the roster move really had nothing to do with Feeley at all, it was the realization that this move meant Jeff Garcia was going to be allowed to leave Philadelphia without much hesitation from the front office.

It was previously believed that there was a good chance that Garica could not be around next season simply because of the fact that he played so well last year that his stock went way up, giving him an opportunity to cash in on a nice free agency pay check and a starting job in another city. Tied up in that was also the rumors that the Eagles were afraid to keep Garcia around in fear of creating a QB controversy between Garcia and McNabb.

I felt that the Eagles wouldn't let stupid rumors get in the way of keeping a quality back-up QB in town to provide us with a safety net in case McNabb isn't fully recovered from his torn ACL by the time the season starts up again. Everyone was waiting for free agency to hit on March 1st because it seemed like once other teams were allowed to try and woo Garcia to their city, we would be able to determine whether or not we could supply him with enough money to keep him around as a back-up.

The Eagles never let the situation reach that point though as they loudly exclaimed to everyone that Garcia's time was up here as soon as the Feeley deal was announced. From the different sides in the situation, Garcia rightfully feels betrayed by the team in the sense that he never felt he was given much of a chance to sign a contract and stay with the Eagles. Garcia states that his agent received a letter saying that the team was going to pursue structuring a long-term contract with A.J. Feeley, but if that didn't work out than Garcia would be contacted.

Joe Banner says the situation is a little different, he has said that the Eagles let Garcia know that they wanted to get a deal negotiated with him before free agency hit. When Garcia's agent declined to put an offer on the table until after Jeff had a chance to test the free agency waters a little bit, the Eagles went ahead to get a contract worked out for Feeley.

As a business decision it makes sense that Joe Banner wanted to have Garcia under contract before he had a chance to see how free agency was going to treat him, all front office's would love to have that happen. The reality of the situation though, is that it was understandable Garcia wanted to have a chance to see what other teams were going to offer him, that is his reward for being a veteran free agent, he gets to see who wants him and how much money they are willing to pay him.

The Eagles weren't having that though, despite the fact that there should have been much more attention paid to the emotion of the situation, considering Garcia gained the acceptance and love of so many fans for leading us to the playoffs last season, the front office bitterly ended the love affair. It's no surprise that we have a 36 year old QB leaving the team under disappointing circumstances, not only are the Eagles often inclined to not resign players over 30 years old, the situation did start to get sticky when Garcia's presence led to a lot more criticism of what McNabb has done while in Philadelphia.

Garcia had a lot of fun here and he hopes that his season on the Eagles helped revive his career and his success will continue on with him as he heads to the Tampa Bay Bucs. Jeff is in a tough boat with the Bucs as he is heading into a QB controversy along with Bruce Gradkowski, Chris Simms, and possibly Jake Plummer if he so chooses not to retire.

It's no secret that the front office made a pretty slimy move in not fully extending their hand to Garcia to stay here for another year. I'm almost always on Joe Banner's side simply because I have a great respect for the business of the game and I'm aware that to be successful there needs to be decisions made that don't always play well into every one's emotions, but I don't agree with Banner's move this time around.

We can now see that the Eagles had this move planned all along, they tried to act like they wanted to keep Garcia around but they didn't actually try to resign him. I feel betrayed as a fan because the front office thinks that we are stupid and can't see the games that they were playing. It's blatantly obvious that they did not want to resign Garcia because they knew that he wasn't going to put his signature on a contract before he got a chance to take a look around the free agent market.

I feel like the Eagles could have at least done a better job lying to us by letting Garcia test the free agent market and extending a lousy contract offer, proof of the fact that they had no real intention of resigning him. They could have simply made it seem like the offers other teams made were just too much for us to match. I mean if you're going to lie to us, at least do a better job in coming up with a sneaky situation. This move they did make in just resigning Feeley before free agency hit, as a statement to Garcia's freedom to leave, just turned into media fodder.

Even though I thought it was pretty childish for Garcia to gon on NBC 10 and hold his own interview about his disappointment in the front office, he has every right to be furious with the team and in the way they really did stab him in the back after he played his heart out last season.

Plenty of people said that the Eagles were going to let Garcia walk right out of the door, mostly because they didn't want to have such a fan favorite be putting pressure on McNabb as he is coming back from such a serious injury. It is a case of the front office doing all they can to shelter McNabb, which I understand because they have so much money invested in him, but it doesn't make sense to protect McNabb's emotions but yet put the team at a stark disadvantage if Donovan isn't healthy for the start of the '07 season.

No one can deny that with Garcia at the helm we are much more inclined to win a game than with A.J. Feeley. The very little of what we have seen of Feeley has been good, but Garcia was able to light a spark on this team and after what he did last year, he already has the confidence of the guys around him. Hopefully McNabb will be healthy from Week 1 and we won't have to worry about this entire situation, but right now, even with the emotions aside, I'm a lot more uneasy about our QB's now that Garcia isn't around.

The Lewis Jersey Comes Down

My favorite players have evolved overtime as this team has changed year to year. Thirty years ago you could pick your favorite player on your team and pretty much guarantee that he was going to be there from the day he was drafted to the day he retired, no worries.

Now in the age of free agency that I have grown up in, with it being established after the infamous "Plan B" was overruled , I have always been used to a roster looking so different year to year.

There's a real strategy to buying players jerseys now as opposed to back then, considering as a teenager I don't have the means to frequently spend $50 on a new jersey I have to makes sure that I don't invest my money in a players jersey that has a high chance of not being here the following year. Though I would have liked to have gone to the Wild-Card playoff game against the Giants this season in a Jeff Garcia jersey, there was no way I was spending the money when there was a chance he wasn't going to be around for the 2007 season, which is exactly the case.

Those jersey selecting situations remind me of my first favorite player on the Eagles, oh yea...way back in 2001. Prior to that point I was the the typical little kid, I liked whatever Eagles player was good in that one game, even if it was just for one play, I could never make up my mind. But for some reason in 2001 I became decisive at 11 years old on selecting my favorite player, the jersey I was going to buy, was James Thrash.

Though it might seem laughable now, at the time it wasn't too ludicrous, Thrash actually had a good season that year scoring 8 touchdowns. I wore that Thrash jersey proudly, those were it's good days before it was shoved to the back of my closet next to old Halloween costumes. But for those 3 years he was with the team, when we needed someone to come up with that clutch touchdown to win us the game, I was always looking for James Thrash to make it happen. Alright, so it didn't happen too often, but he was the guy I wanted to see win us the game.

As his time in Philadelphia wore out I was still loyal to Thrash, never wanting to see him leave. Even though his numbers were way down and a much more talented and flashy Terrell Owens came into town, it was still disappointing to see my favorite player go. But I moved on, my next selection was on the other side of the ball, Michael Lewis.

The first autograph I ever stood in line for was Michael Lewis's. This was before I had tickets and when I saw him, a completely normal guy just sitting behind a table at the Eagles Carnival, I just wasn't able to connect in my head that he is the guy I watched avidly every Sunday out on the field. Actually even now I still think of every one of the players as a celebrity, an untouchable force, that it's so strange for me to see them off of the field, just living normal lives.

That Michael Lewis jersey that I had worn religiously was now signed by Lewis himself, there was no way I would ever be able to just wear it again. So I got a big frame for it, put it inside and hung it up, where it's been for the past few years, right next to the screen in my living room for every Eagles game. The autograph isn't a valuable one that would make tons of money on E-Bay or make someone else jealous that I had it but to me it was definitely my favorite piece of Eagles memorabilia just because of the memories that went along with it.

The recent news is that the Eagles passed on resigning Michael Lewis to a new contract, surprise surprise. Prior to this season I would have guaranteed you that Lewis would have been able to bounce back from a rough 2005 season and play the way we saw him perform in 2004, but that didn't happen. After being humiliated by Joe Horn the previous week, and even quite possibly the scape goat of that entire situation, Lewis was benched in favor of the younger Sean Considine.

Would the coaches have benched Lewis if he was not playing in the last year of his contract? No way. If Lewis was already signed to a long term deal he would have been given the opportunity to play through this rough patch in his career but with the unknown up ahead the Eagles opted to see what the future player, Sean Considine could do. The change did not lead to any phenomenal improvements for the secondary, there were still mistakes made to finish out the year, but it did seem like the coaches had made a smart decision in removing Lewis as a starter.

Michael was not completely ruled out of the system after he lost his strong safety job to Considine, from that point on we saw him being used as a dime linebacker. He was a great role player at that position but he, understandably, believed that he should be a starting safety. So he was ready, willing, and able to go to the 49ers when they called his name to start at safety with a nice paycheck in hand. We lost a good Dime player because no one can deny Lewis's talents as an athlete, but after numerous exposures over the past 2 years his confidence seemed to be pretty shot in the secondary.

This team still has plenty of questions to answer at the SS position with Sean Considine most likely being the starter next year but we were no better off with Lewis.

After all of that, the Michael Lewis jersey is being taken down, replaced by what has become my new favorite jersey, Mr. Shawn Andrews.

So as the Lewis jersey comes out of the frame and into the back of the closet, right alongside James Thrash, I'll make sure to never get rid of it. Even with Thrash now in Washington, when I look at that jersey I still see my first Eagles game that I went to in 2003 against the New York Jets, the first taste I got of Lincoln Financial Field on game day. The day I caught the sickness that kept me coming back for more until I made the decision to be, what seems like, eternally in debt to support my addiction to this team.

Attached to that Lewis jersey are just as many memories, the majority of them coming from that dream like season of 2004 where he was a complete ball hawk, earning himself a spot in the Pro-Bowl as he was a key factor in our trip to the Super Bowl. With Lewis being such a hard hitter he made an impression, a physical impression, as he pressed their faces into the dirt, on just about every player that came across the middle in his time here.

I still picture Lewis running around that field along with Dawk and Trotter, hoisting that NFC Championship trophy in the air. Even with Lewis now being in San Fran, those memories are not tarnished, I'll never forget them.

Back In Action

An entire month without posting, I never thought I could go that long.

After an exhausting season that thankfully dragged on until there was nothing left in the tank, the team halted for the offseason.

I took a little break, along with the players and now even Andy Reid, who in the time I spent away from here, took a temporary leave of absence to handle some very public family issues.

Within this month the stories have circulated mostly about Coach Reid and the problems that he is facing with his kids, I really won't get into the entire situation. It's none of my business, the kids seems like a bunch of spoiled punks, but that's Andy's problem. I'm not going to search for story lines and suggest that any problem Andy has at home has affected this team in a negative way, not after 4 NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl appearance. Especially not after he coached this team to a 10-6 record despite the star QB being on Injured Reserve.

Now that free agency kicked off there are actually things happening that produce legitimate outcomes for this roster, whether they be negative or positive. As of right now the top moves are that Garcia and Michael Lewis are gone, Quintin Mikell and Juqua Thomas are here and most importantly for me right now: everything is quiet with Donte' Stallworth.

I feel as long as we don't hear his name being thrown around a lot it proves that he is not a very sought after commodity to any other team. That provides us with more opportunity to keep him in Philadelphia where I pray that he can stay healthy and give himself the chance to be a star player on this team.

Even though the NFL really does go all season long I stepped away from writing about it for a little bit just to get my thoughts together for this upcoming season. It's been only over a month since we last played and I'm already dying for the scorching hot days of training camp.

But this is when a team is built, the are being organized, some discarded and some picked up. Step 1 of getting everything together for a championship.