Eagles Patch a Hole at Linebacker. Again.

Tonight, the Eagles' website is reporting the team has traded Darwin Walker and a conditional pick to the Buffalo Bills for linebacker Takeo Spikes and backup quarterback (?) Kelly Holcomb.  We'll assume they haven't jumped the gun again and that this deal is actually complete.

This is kind of a strange deal.  On the one hand, it's clear the Eagles have upgraded (most likely) the strongside linebacker position for at least one season (there's an '08 option on his contract).  Even coming off a devastating Achilles injury and missing four games to injury last year, Spikes still put up numbers similar to what Dhani gave the Eagles.  He's also only a couple years removed from two Pro Bowl appearances.  Clearly, if his wheels are still good, Spikes can play. 

On the other hand, this looks like the kind of deal the Eagles are prone to making -- in reverse.  Spikes turned 30 this season and appears to be on the downslope of his career.  He's also due to make $4.5 million this season and given his injury/age questions, it's unlikely the Eagles are going to look to do any sort of early extension.  Buffalo got a productive -- if occasionally asinine -- player in exchange for an aging vet who needed a change of scenery.  Um, and we got a quarterback too.  But there's no long-term fix here.

Which suggests a couple of things.  The first is that the Eagles simply weren't sold on the idea of Chris Gocong starting as the SAM this season.  As mediocre as Dhani Jones has been, they just weren't ready to turn the position over to Gocong, even before they got a chance to see him in mini-camps.  That's unfortunate.  However, the second thing this deal tells us is that Gocong very much remains part of their future plans at that position.  Otherwise, why not draft a guy who can be more than a one-year fix?   

There's a certain element of Kremlinology that comes into play when you try to analyze the Eagles.  They're such a tight-lipped organization that you really have to judge them by what they do, rather than what they say.  Which is to say I could be really wrong about this, but right now, this looks like a one-year move while they wait for Gocong to get himself ready to play.

Maybe we can give Spikes a ring to take with him when he leaves... 

Comments

[whoismariowilliams]

Probably not gonna take Poz then, huh?

[BleedingGreenNation]

I also think he'll play the SAM, but SPikes' natural position is the WILL. If Gocong steps up this preseason it's entirely possible to see Spikes at WILL, Trotter/Gaither at MIKE, and Gocong at SAM. That takes us from a severely undersized starting LB corps to a monstrously big one.

[Me]

Both good points. The question with Spikes on the weak side is if he still has the speed he used to. With a semi-bum leg, that may not work. He could definitely play the middle, though, and I could even see him sliding into the middle on passing downs no matter where we starts, just to get Trotter off the field.

As for Poz, yeah, it's not looking as good now. Maybe they knew he wasn't going to fall to them.