Promoted From Comments

Good question from "Mike" in the comments I want to address on the main page:

I'd love to hear your reasons why we shouldn't draft a linebacker. Yes, we have TKO and Gaither is figuring things out, but after that it's who? Gocong? Bradley? Jordan? Togafau?

Jordan and Togafau barely made the roster, Bradley is learning but slowly, and Gocong always performed better when he played as a stand-up DE anyway. Why not keep Gocong and develop him as an end that could be used in various coverage schemes, continue to develop Bradley, and bring in someone who can contribute right away to complete a starting trio with Gaither and TKO?

I think that we have bigger problems (read: secondary) than at linebacker, but it's hardly out of the question.

It's a good question, and one I'd answer in a few parts.  First of all -- and this wasn't clear in the previous post because evidently I take a day off and suddenly I lose the ability to write complete sentences -- I think it's more a question of "won't" rather than "shouldn't."  I think the Eagles won't draft a linebacker in the first round simply because that's not what they do.  I don't want to say they don't "value" linebackers, because that's not true, but it's clearly a lower priority than Quarterback > Offensive / Defensive Lines > Cornerback. 

Secondly, because the Eagles are facing a situation where a) the pass rush needs help and b) they have so little (quality) depth on the defensive line that guys like Trent Cole, Mike Patterson and Juqua Thomas are all playing more snaps than would be ideal, it seems to me that the team is likely to consider the line a greater need. 

Finally, I believe TKO will be back, which means you have a top four at the linebacker spot of TKO, Gaither, Gocong and Bradley.  The Eagles' history suggests that they'll give a draft pick every chance to lose the job before they replace him, which means Bradley still needs to get his shot before they think about the next guy.

I don't think there's any question that you could upgrade that unit by sticking a guy like Dan Connor into the mix.  I thought some of the end of year pronouncements about how great that unit was and how much depth the Eagles now had there to be a little over the top.   But as a final thought consider what would happen if the Eagles were to lose Trent Cole for a couple months.  Pretty much total pass rush shutdown, right?  I don't see how you can go into 2008 with that situation.