On the defensive side of the ball, I hear Stewart Bradley's voice above the others as he gets everybody into the huddle. Bradley is a young player who is establishing himself as a defensive leader, but he's going to need help.
The Birds defense is in need of leadership when you think of the absence of Jim Johnson and Brian Dawkins. They embodied the character which the defense played with for over a decade.
They led by example. Both Jim and Dawk took a look in the mirror if the defense didn't play up to par. Their honest and humble judgement of themselves forced everybody else on the defense to do the same thing.
That defense always came back from a bad game with an outstanding effort to rebound. They need to continue to carry on that tradition. It's going to take leadership from their most veteran players to keep their level of play high.
The only defensive starter remaining from the Super Bowl team is cornerback Sheldon Brown. He should be taking on more of a leadership role but he's not.
"I have a good sense of humor," Brown said. "Obviously, everybody knows how I feel, but I'm going to do what I've done the last seven years, and that's what I do. I show up and I play football. I sent [Reid] a text to remind him how old I was. I wanted to know how long he was going to give me off."
Brown is refusing to be as enthusiastic because he's thinking about the contract that he wanted that he doesn't have. Rather than going the extra mile he's doing what he has to do.
That's not leadership. More than most of the other guys on that defense Sheldon has the most experience and they need him to make it point to lead with his attitude and his play.
Asante Samuel will need to do the same because he's a Pro Bowler who is respected by his teammates. Right now he's out with a hamsring problem.
Quintin Mikell is bringing along Quintin Demps in much the same way that Dawkins taught him the safety position, but they need Brown to take on some leadership as well.
It's true that Sheldon isn't saying bad things to the media but the fact that he's not his enthusiastic self isn't good for the football team.
I don't see any smiles from him and I don't see any positive body language. Everybody on that defense knows that he's not happy.
This won't be a plus for this football team as the season continues.
