Spikes is spiked
The Eagles released linebacker Takeo Spikes today. This was a move that seemed almost inevitable to me the moment Stewart Bradley intercepted Drew Brees at the Superdown, therby doubling Spikes' season total of disruptive plays in the span of a single game.
In the intervening weeks that feeling receded, and like everybody else, I was a little bit surprised when I got the word today. Nothing really changed. Spikes was still unlikely to return to his Pro Bowl form, he still had a Pro Bowl-type base salary coming to him in 2008, and nothing had happened to diminish the team's expectations for youngsters like Bradley, Omar Gaither and Chris Gocong. I guess I was waiting for the Birds to sign some cardboard cutout of a veteran linebacker, not necessarily to start, but just to act as a safety net of some sort. It never happened, though I suppose it still could.
By the way, barring something unforseen, Gaither will be back on the weakside in 2008. As much as he wants to stay in the middle, Gocong can only play the SAM and Bradley can't play WILL, so there's really no alternative.
Spikes's voice will be missed in the locker room, but of more pressing concern to us (the writers who cover the team on a daily basis) is who's going to talk to us. Spikes was always fairly frank and occasionally very eloquent, and his presence made up a lot for the departure of Jeremiah Trotter as the voice of the defense. Now only Brian Dawkins remains. We'll see who, if anybody, they send to the NovaCare Complex podium in Spikes' place every Thursday afternoon. Maybe Gaither. Possibly Samuel, given the size of his contract. Not Cole, despite his prominence. Certainly not Patterson or Bunkley. Lito probably won't be here. I'd love it if it were Sheldon, but he probably fires from the hipn a bit too often for the Eagles' taste. There were plenty of things that Sheldon said last season that the Birds' PR staff would have had to "clarify" in the official transcripts.
In the intervening weeks that feeling receded, and like everybody else, I was a little bit surprised when I got the word today. Nothing really changed. Spikes was still unlikely to return to his Pro Bowl form, he still had a Pro Bowl-type base salary coming to him in 2008, and nothing had happened to diminish the team's expectations for youngsters like Bradley, Omar Gaither and Chris Gocong. I guess I was waiting for the Birds to sign some cardboard cutout of a veteran linebacker, not necessarily to start, but just to act as a safety net of some sort. It never happened, though I suppose it still could.
By the way, barring something unforseen, Gaither will be back on the weakside in 2008. As much as he wants to stay in the middle, Gocong can only play the SAM and Bradley can't play WILL, so there's really no alternative.
Spikes's voice will be missed in the locker room, but of more pressing concern to us (the writers who cover the team on a daily basis) is who's going to talk to us. Spikes was always fairly frank and occasionally very eloquent, and his presence made up a lot for the departure of Jeremiah Trotter as the voice of the defense. Now only Brian Dawkins remains. We'll see who, if anybody, they send to the NovaCare Complex podium in Spikes' place every Thursday afternoon. Maybe Gaither. Possibly Samuel, given the size of his contract. Not Cole, despite his prominence. Certainly not Patterson or Bunkley. Lito probably won't be here. I'd love it if it were Sheldon, but he probably fires from the hipn a bit too often for the Eagles' taste. There were plenty of things that Sheldon said last season that the Birds' PR staff would have had to "clarify" in the official transcripts.
posted by SMc. at 7:10 PM
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