Takeo Spikes, Kelly Holcomb, Philadelphia Eagles

[BigEd76]

....nm....delete me

[QB Eagles]

How long before Gocong joins Dawrin's engineering firm?

[Eagaholic]

Speaking of stealing money, now Dhani Bowties is gonna hafta to go see Joey Bannaners.

[bobbyinlondon]

FWIW, from the EMB:

Walker was on WIP and he said he wanted more money and the FO was unwilling to give him a raise from his $1.8M salary. He apparently said the negotiations were getting ugly.

I think you misheard that--the Eagles wouldn't go above 1.8M. They were to pay him 1.3M and 1.4M the next two seasons.

[shorebird]

Great trade. Good to see some positive posts instead of the bitching that was going on early in free agency. Patience pays off.

I hope this trade doesn't mean that the Eagles aren't going to draft a LB.

[Rome]

Walker, meanwhile, was an example of another tool the Birds use to manage their cap. In 2002, his first year as a starter, he signed a 7-year extension that gave him $4 million up front before his then-current deal was up, but left him underpaid for a healthy, starting-quality defensive tackle in his prime, 5 years later. Walker, who turns 30 in June, is scheduled to make $1.3 million this season and $1.4 million next season. Yesterday he told WIP Radio's Howard Eskin that he knew he would be traded when talks aimed at extending his deal last season didn't produce an agreement. Walker said he felt he was grossly underpaid.

Bitch was stealing money and he though he was grossly underpaid.

Hilarious.

[ice grillin you]

i dont about grossly underpaid and the guy wasnt an all pro or anything...but he was the teams best DT and a solid player....which made him underpaid when you look around the league at other starting DT's...and he most def wasnt "stealing" money

[SunMo]

team's best DT = tallest midget


it may have been covered in the previous 7 pages, but Spikes keeps talking about being a WIL, not a SAM.  I wonder if they will move Gaither to middle, cut Trotter and let Dhani and Gocong "compete" for the SAM in training camp.

[Feva]

Nice article on what Spikes means to the LB's... and what Dhani Jones means to Patti LaBelle.

Eagles move to fix problem


Team upgrades defense with linebacker Spikes

Whatever Takeo Spikes has left, it will be plenty -- because it will be better than what the Eagles had.

Trading for Spikes, a two-time Pro Bowl player, is a huge upgrade for the Eagles defense.

Spikes and Kelly Holcomb, a backup quarterback also acquired in the trade from Buffalo for Darwin Walker, will meet the media today at the NovaCare Center.

The moment he puts on the jersey, before he makes a single tackle, Spikes makes the Eagles better.

Primarily this is because he's a good, quality NFL player. Spikes is 30 years old and coming off some significant injuries. But he's a proven player in this league, an impact player, a guy who disrupts opposing offenses and makes big plays.

In short, he is not Matt McCoy and Dhani Jones.

That the Eagles believed they could get by, even compete as an elite team with McCoy and Jones at outside linebacker gave off the impression that the Eagles didn't care much about the position.

That's not exactly true; they just wildly underestimated what it took to play there.

Look, for example, at the way the defense improved when Omar Gaither stepped in for McCoy. Gaither is a nice player, and he had a good rookie year. But he didn't exactly set the world on fire; the Eagles got better because they replaced a guy who couldn't play with a guy who could.

Mitigating factor: McCoy suffered a shoulder injury last season that hurt his effectiveness.

Fact: McCoy wasn't doing much to distinguish himself before he got hurt. And the Eagles didn't hurry to get him back on the field after he got healthy.

The presence of Spikes makes it possible (maybe very likely) that Jones is done as an Eagle. This should make Eagles fans happy, given that Jones had become the scapegoat for all that was wrong with the defense.

Mitigating factor: Jones was playing out of position at the strong side.

Fact: Quick -- name one memorable, game-changing play Jones made while an Eagle.

His highlights here included the bowties, the banjo strumming, getting arrested in Miami for dancing in the street, and the time Patti LaBelle threatened to "pimp-slap" him after Jones jumped on stage and started horsing around during LaBelle's performance at an AIDS Awareness Concert last summer.

Classic stuff. If the Eagles sold coach Andy Reid cutting Dhani Jones as a Pay-Per-View event, they'd make a fortune.

This is the really remarkable thing -- just a few months ago Reid and GM Tom Heckert looked at the Jones-McCoy tandem and thought: This is good enough to contend in the NFC.

By at the end of last year the Eagles, who have not had a Pro Bowl outside linebacker since William Thomas and often acted like linebacker wasn't really an important position, admitted they had a problem and couldn't continue like this.

Because the Eagles are so rarely inclusive with their thinking, we're always trying to read the tea leaves and guess at what they're going to do.

Acquiring Montae Reagor didn't seem to make sense, since he's just a better version of Darwin Walker. When they didn't act too enthused about Chris Gocong making it at outside linebacker, it seemed cause for concern since linebacker was an obvious need.

Once again, it's useless to listen to what the Eagles say. Just watch what they do. They had a problem, and fixed it.

Enter Spikes.

Mitigating factor: Spikes is on the wrong side of 30, and makes kind of a lot of money for a linebacker coming off leg injuries. The whispers out of Buffalo are that Spikes wasn't the same guy last year, that he'd lost a step and was on the downside.

Fact: Spikes suffered a torn Achilles tendon in 2005, and wasn't all the way back when he started last season. On his first play, he sacked New England quarterback Tom Brady and forced a fumble that was returned for a touchdown. Then he blew out a hamstring, missed four games, and gimped around on it.

And they think he might have lost a step. Well, duh.

Today Spikes will promise that he's healthy, and he'll talk about having something to prove. He's eager to play for a winner, a team that has a real chance to play deep into January.

Every NFL person that talks about Spikes uses the words "character" and "leadership." He's tough, tenacious, a gamer and playmaker.

And he's such a significant upgrade that acquiring him was a no-brainer, no matter what the risks of age or injury.

[Feva]

team's best DT = tallest midget


it may have been covered in the previous 7 pages, but Spikes keeps talking about being a WIL, not a SAM.  I wonder if they will move Gaither to middle, cut Trotter and let Dhani and Gocong "compete" for the SAM in training camp.

I hear people talk about that, but I just can't see them cutting Trotter.  They're probably still shell shocked over the change of aquiring what should be a quality LB.  I can't see themchanging that drastically in just one offseason.  I definitely think Trotter will see fewer plays this year which will mean more Gaither at MLB... but there's no way they cut him, IMO.

[SunMo]

you're probably right, but my overall point is that i don't think this necessarily spells the end for Dhani

[Diomedes]

I hope Trotter becomes strictly a two down LB for this year.  Reduce his reps so he can be fresh when he's in. 

Cut him after this season.

Dhani should be gone now...unless they're gonna just plug Gocong in for him, in which case I'm not feeling great about that.  Dhani isn't making any great plays but Gocong is a total unknown, and frankly it would have to be considered a real steal if he turns out to be as good as Dhani.  Let's not forget that Dhani has been starting in the NFL for several years and that Gocon has no LB experience, and didn't even play in the top college division.  Or conference.  Or whatever they call that college shtein.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Nice article on what Spikes means to the LB's... and what Dhani Jones means to Patti LaBelle.

Yes.  Exactly.


I really hope to God they're cutting Dhani soon or maybe trading him for chump change on draft day at worst.

[Feva]

you're probably right, but my overall point is that i don't think this necessarily spells the end for Dhani

Yeah... I get you... I know Spikes has said he wants to play WIL but he played SAM last season and you gotta think that's where the Eagles want him being that they've already got the Gaither/McCoy thing going on the weakside.

If Spikes does end up at SAM, I think it comes down to Gocong... I think if he shows he's merely competent as a LB and that he's capable of learing... bye, bye Dhani.

If nothing else... this should severely limit the amount of times the bow-tie is on the field.

[SunMo]

i'm actually not opposed to him playing WIL, that's the linebacker position that makes the most positive plays for a defense anyway