Football Season Is Finally Here

It took awhile, but given the way I just spent ten seconds staring at this headline in the upper righthand corner of the philly.com sports page, trying to figure out what possible point he could be making about McNabb, I think my personal calendar has finally flipped.

Also, since there's a huge groundswell of Leonard Weaver appreciation mounting, it seems like a good time to make a few points.

First of all, I love Weaver.  I lobbied -- in the sense that no one listens to me but still -- for them to bring him in the whole offseason.  I am decidedly pro-Weaver.

With that said, let's all calm down about him a bit.  Weaver is a fullback, not a tailback in a fullback's body.  He is not Mike Alstott. 

Yes, he shows good power and speed for a fullback, but his shiftiness rates about a 1.7 on a ten-point scale.  So to line him up in one-back sets and pound the rock?  No, that's not going to work.  Give it to Westbrook instead.

What you want to do with guys like Weaver is use them on the traditional fullback running plays, like the dive or a quick trap.  He's got enough pure speed that if he gets past the initial line of defenders, he's going to run awhile before they bring him down.  And if he doesn't, well, it's three yards.

Weaver is also the answer to our biggest Wildcat problem, which is that teams are overplaying the outside runs.  Assuming for a minute that Reid actually wants to resuscitate the Vick package at some point this year (which we're no longer so sure about), a couple successful gives up the middle to Weaver will do wonders for Vick's ability to break things outside.

The last point is I'm not sure how attached to Weaver we should allow ourselves to get.  Weaver is clearly the best fullback we've had around here in awhile, but the question the Eagles are going to ask themselves this spring is if the marginal on-field value he provides is worth the significant salary premium he'll require versus the young fullback in training on the practice squad. 

It's not a no-brainer question, either.  Just from his on-field, offensive contributions alone, I don't know if he can get there, especially because we know he's looking for a big deal (which is how he ended up here in the first place).  It's going to come down to his impact on special teams and in the locker room.  With such a young team, if Weaver's providing some veteran leadership, that's going to help him.

Sam can tell us about special teams.