Here’s a spot where the Eagles miss the leadership of Brian Dawkins. He would have the stature to call out Asante Samuel about his poor tackling.
The Eagles coaches have talked to cornerback Asante Samuel about his poor tackling but he’s not the kind of guy who is affected by repirmands from the coaches.
He knows they can afford to bench him and he’s already put millions and millions of dollars in his pocket. Samuel knows that interceptions are the statistics that puts him in the Pro Bowl, not tackles.
He probably goes by the rule that a former Pro Bowl teammate of mine who played on the defensive line said, “1000 tackles equals a sack”. Samuel probably feels “1000 tackles equals an interception”.
The only thing that would get through to Samuel would be a player of greater stature than he is, looking him in the eye and calling him out for selling out his teammates.
You can’t have guys in the secondary who tackle that poorly. Samuel doesn’t want to make any tackles because he’s too good of an athlete to be whiffing on so many tackles.
Here you have a guy who can cover fleet receivers, who are as quick as cats and as graceful as a gazelle, but he can’t get a piece of big, Oakland tight end Zach Miller, who put a pedestrian move on him.
Something has to be done about Samuel and his tackling.
Andy Reid and Sean McDermott may have to decide to sit Samuel down to prove they’re willing to put him on the bench if that’s what it takes.
