I went back and took a look at the Eagles game against the Panthers and I could see why the Eagles made the decision to make the move at middle linebacker this week. Omar Gaither was kicking some butt while Trot just wasn't getting there.
Gaither made plays chasing down ball carriers on running plays and pressuring the quarterback on blitzes. Omar has a great sense of taking the right route to the ball carrier. He shows tremendous quickness in avoiding blockers and getting to the ball. You can’t teach this and you can’t measure it with a stop watch.
There was such a distinctive difference between the play of Trotter and Gaither against the Panthers that I could understand why Omar was lining up with the first defensive unit on Monday. Jim Johnson said it all about Gaither who doesn’t have great speed or size, “He (Gaither) is a playmaker, and we wanted to get him on the field; it's as simple as that." After the game tape against the Panthers I have to agree with him. Some guys just have a knack for making plays and Omar is one of them.
Yesterday at his news conference the Birds defensive coordinator said, "Well, only time's going to determine that," when he was questioned about how young and inexperienced his linebacker corps was. Johnson continued saying, “we felt good about our young linebackers, and Spikes. We feel good right now. We're still looking for leaders. We've still got some good leaders on this team in Dawkins and that. Hopefully, some of those guys will step it up. We know Takeo will, and I think Omar has leadership ability."
Omar is a take charge kind of guy who started barking out the defenses and the calls from the minute he got here. I had kidded him last year that he was yelling the defensive calls so loud that the offense would hear them. I had told him that his talking was a good thing. I could tell last year that Gaither was one of the more mature youngsters of the crew that the Birds drafted last year from the time he got here.
You can argue about the guys the Eagles have playing linebacker but there’s question that Jeremiah Trotter had become a liability on pass plays. Behind the scenes, the Birds staff had no choice when they watched Trotter’s inability to change directions. He just couldn’t move to cover anybody one on one. The Birds would have to play zone if Trotter was on the field, plus teams had focusing on going after Trot when he was on the field.
I liked the confidence and looseness in the Eagles locker room amongst the young linebackers. Gaither and Bradley seem to have no problem with the fact that the Birds will be looking for them to get the job done on a defense that had major problems last year stopping the run. I think they’re going to have some challenges during the year but confidence won’t be the thing that stops them.
