Heads up to Joe Mays the clock is ticking. Jeremiah Trotter should thank Mays for resurrecting his career. The Birds had to sign Trot because Mays wasn’t ready to take the job.
Mays must not waste this time in his career or it will shorten his time in the NFL.
Players get categorized early in their career. This is happening to Mays. He’s now in the category of players who are physically capable but not up to snuff mentally.
He must make the most of every meeting and every chance he gets to learn the defense as he observes Trotter and Omar Gaither playing the middle linebacker position.
The coaching staff is focused on getting ready for the next game, so they don’t have time to bother with Mays. I thought I would do the youngster a favor and tell him that he’ll be on his way out of here next year, if he doesn’t master the defense from a mental standpoint.
He should get himself ready to play right now. Nobody can predict when injuries will occur.
There are two reasons the Eagles called Trotter and resigned him. First of all, they don’t have confidence that Mays can deal with the mental aspect of the middle linebacker position.
Secondly, they don’t think Gaither can deal with the physical aspect of the middle linebacker position. Remember that Gaither lost his job when the Giants bullied him at Lincoln Financial Field a year ago.
During Mays’ rookie year, they kept things simple for him and let him go out and just play football in the preseason. He played great, showed off his ball instincts because he was out there without a lot of intellectual responsibility.
During this past off season and throughout the pre-season, they asked him to learn the defense to the point where he could make adjustments and tell other players where they needed to be.
He had brain-overload and it affected his play. It sapped his aggressiveness and caused him to play cautiously. You can’t have that in a middle linebacker.
Coaches don’t have time to be patient. This can’t happen again.
Next year something will give one way or the other.
Mays has the aggressive attittude and physical attributes to be a good middle linebacker, but he must learn from this episode in his career. He’s got to push himself now to learn this defense like the back of his hand.
The next time they call his number he’d better be ready.
If he shows up next year to training camp and hasn’t mastered the defense, he’s going to have his ticket punched back to Chicago. He’ll be subsitute teaching or selling insurance.
Those are honorable professions but they don’t start you off in the $500,000 range.
