Meet your new LB core!
Len Pasquarelli’s Tip Sheet on ESPN.com is reporting that the Eagles brass are considering moving Gaither into the middle linebacker spot in 2007.
For the peeps with an Insider account – you can check the report here.
I wrote in this space about a week ago that I wouldn’t be surprised if the starting LB core was comprised of McCoy and Gocong as OLBs and Gaither as the MLB. In 2006, Trotter played like Sammy Sosa the year the MLB started testing for steroids. He’s scheduled to make 2.6 million next season, and he’s become a lumbering two down player with horrific coverage skills. In fact, there were several games this year, where opposing coaches specifically gameplanned to target Trotter and isolate him in coverage. And as Howard Eskin would likely put it, Trotter was exposed!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I do not endorse this new grouping of LBs. Gaither played half a season well on the weakside. Does that make him a starting MLB? Not really. When Gaither was drafted, scouts lamented the fact that Gaither, who was a strongside backer at Tennessee, would likely have to make a move to the weakside because of his lack of bulk.
Thus, the Eagles defensive line needs to do a better job occupying offensive linemen for Gaither to be successful in the middle. As for Gocong, he’s a big mystery. A converted DE, he’s extremely quick, relatively big (6’3″ 263), and very smart. And based on his college numbers (42 sacks in 41 games) he can rush the passer. Too bad he played I-AA.
Which leads us to Matt McCoy. One can only hope all those “injuries” really did limit his play, because he flat out sucked for most of the year. On the bright side, McCoy was second on the team in tackles for a loss, and forced 3 fumbles, basically in 12 games. He gets absolutely dominated at the point of attack by bigger linemen, tight ends, fullbacks, and 90 pound waif runway supermodels.
So, in closing I’d say that going into 2007 with a converted division I-AA rookie, and two undersized weakside LBs, one to be converted to the middle is flat out madcap craziness. But we all know the Eagles’ opinion, linebackers don’t mean shit, right?
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Posted on January 26, 2007 by Dave | Filed Under Eagles
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According to Anthony Gargano, his sources tell him Trotter will “definitely be back next season”. So it wouldn’t be a money issue, more of a quality of play issue.
In defense of Trotter, he was voted a 1st alternate to the NFC squad for the Pro-Bowl. That would make him, in theory, no worse than the 6th player at MLB in the league.
Trotter has been a liability in pass coverage for quite some time. Its nothing new this year. I would expect, given a healthy D-line at full strength in front of him, that he would play better against the run. But with Kearse out, Howard playing injured, McDougle useless, and Bunkley on the bench, the Eagles were left with just 2 good ends (Cole and Thomas) and 3 good tackles (Patterson, Rayburn, and Walker). That’s not enough guys to go through a whole season with the number of plays the Eagles defense was forced to face – 1054, or 3.5 more per game than the typical team.
First off, the Pro-Bowl means squat. It’s a popularity contest.
I agree – if you get the tackles healthy and keep guys off Trotter he will be more effective. I also agree to that he makes too much money to strictly be a 2 down player who Jim Johnson said played too many plays this year. You say Trotter has been a liability in coverage for quite some time, and I agree to a point, but this year he didn’t even get an opportunity very often because Johnson wasn’t comfortable with him on the field for passing downs. I’m all for keeping Trotter for one more year if he gets serious and gets in shape. He proclaimed himself to be in the best shape of his career this year and he obviously wasn’t – he was too heavy. This week, Trotter again proclaimed that he was going to come into camp in the best shape of his career. He better, or he won’t be employed.
Trotter only got to play 3 downs in 2005, and he wasn’t effective at it then.
He may be another candidate for a pay cut. I could see him coughing up 500K.
The other problem with Trot is that he’s useless when the ball is run to the edges. There were too many cases to count where, untouched, he couldn’t get the right angle (because he’s too slow and can’t change direction) to catch the back running outside the ends.
I agree with both of you. No one noticed Trotter’s play last year because the team was so terrible, there were better things to worry about. However, Trotter had 10 passes defensed last year – this year 4. I’m still looking for numbers on tackles for losses but I could only find that in 2005 Trotter had 13, the most of any player during the Andy Reid era. This year? Anyone know?
Tackles for loss:
Games in parenthesis:
1999: (16) – 5
2000: (16) – 10
2001: (16) – 11.5
2002: (12) – 5 – (Knee Injury)
2003: (16) – 2.5 – (Year after knee injury, subsequently released).
2004: (8) – 9
2005: (15) – 11
2006: (16) – 2.5 (hmmmm….subsequently released?????)
Come on, don’t you get it? McCoy was a tackling maching at San Diego Community College Tech or wherever he went. He was so good he left college early because he wanted to lead the NFL in drag-down tackles 20 years down field, SoCal wasn’t a challenge any more. Think of the SPEED this LB core will have, the new way to play the position is to engage the OL, wait until the RB is past you, then run away from the OL so he can’ t block you anymore and catch the RB. Hey, the Colts played this defense and look where they are . . .
In another note saw something on Parcells recently and the piece touched on his theory of building a defense around LBs, interesting that his take on defense is verry different than the Eagles’. Looks at New England too, no superstar LBs, but 5 or 6 smart players who know their roles and are pretty much interchangeable, so the offense can’t get a read on what they’re doing. Maybe Reid’s emphasis is misplaced? He values LBs least on defense and RBs least on offense, and has no Super Bowl rings. In contrast, Parcells and Belechick believe in strong LBs and committed to the running game and they have 5 SB rings . . .
Jay S.:
Parcells and Belechick are not committed to the running game. They are comitted to playing to win. If they see that throwing the ball 50 times a game is the way to win, they’ll do it. See the Patriots-Vikings game this year, or the 1994 Parcells coached Patriots, where Bledose dropped back something like 750 times in one season or the 1997 Parcells Jets when O’Donnell and Foley dropped back 150 more times than Martin and Co ran the ball. Or ask yourself why Belichick didn’t feel a running game was worth acquiring until 2004 – he certainly didn’t have much of one from 2000 to 2003, or from 1991 to 1995 in Cleveland.
The very worst myth about football is that you have to run 50% of the time and run for 100 yards to create a win. NO!!!!! You run 50% of the time and for 100 yards because you are winning. The runs and yards come in the 4th quarter from grinding out the clock once you have secured a lead with your passing offense.
Even worse is drafting running backs high in the first round (i.e. building your offense around the Running Back). The production you get simply is not worth the enormous payout and the share of salary cap used by a single running back, and running backs are too fungible for the most part to make the gamble worth it.
Last thought, Belichick has not built the Patriots around Linebackers. During his whole tenure there, in all seven rounds, he has drafted THREE linebacker in SEVEN years – Tully Banta-Cain, Hakim Akbar (WHO???) and TJ Turner (WHO???). Most of his linebackers were Parcells era holdovers (Bruschi, McGinnest, Johnson), or detritus from other teams that Belichick remade (Vrabel, Colvin, Izzo). His drafts in the first three rounds have been focused on the Defensive Line (4 picks), Tight Ends (3 picks), Wideouts (3 picks), Defensive Backs (4 picks), Offensive Line (4 picks), and a single Running Back (Maroney) and a Fullback (Redmond). Gosh does that sound familiar – say to the Eagles/Reid draft strategy (except that Reid actually has taken 3 early round linebackers)?