Despite working on the problems all season, the Eagles we’re able to find an answer for the loss of middle linebacker Stewart Bradley. They also haven’t found somebody who can play the weak safety position next to strong safety Quintin Mikell.
They tried six guys at the position but were never able to find someone who could both play the run and cover the pass well enough to keep on the field.
Veteran Jeremiah Trotter did what he could do but his liabilities as a cover guy are too serious for him to be a long-term solution.
The biggest disappointment was young middle linebacker Joe Mays, who wasn’t trusted to play at all. Here you’ve got a young backer who can run and hit but couldn’t grasp the system enough to play.
Akeem Jordan isn’t a middle linebacker. He should be put at the weakside linebacker position and left there.
Will Witherspoon isn’t physical enough to play well enough against the run to be a middle linebacker. He’s a good backup linebacker.
The Cowboys knew they could attack the Eagles linebackers by running the ball and they did two weeks in a row.
The Birds problems at the weak safety spot were obvious. It caused them to have strong safety Quintin Mikell playing out of position. Mikell is best when he’s blitzing, supporting the run and covering tight ends.
He’s not a weak safety but he had to play the position because they don’t have a competetent weak safety on the football team.
Sean Jones is another strong safety, who can’t do the job of running sideline to sideline in deep coverage.
Rookie Macho Harris has the speed to play weak safety but his tackling is atrocious and he seems to get overwhelmed at times physically.
