Eagles new starting Will linebacker Ernie Sims says these rookie OTA’s are one of the differences between playing for the hapless Detroit Lions and playing for a team which made the playoffs in eight of the last 11 seasons.
He says he wouldn’t have minded starting his career out here as an Eagle.
”I wish I had this when I was a rookie,” he said, ”because the system we had in Detroit, you don’t get a lot of one-on-one time. [Here] rookies get a lot of one-on-one time, and I feel like it’s good for me because, yes, I am a veteran, but at the same time I don’t know the defense like the other veterans do.”
Sims wants to get back to the winning ways he experienced in high school where he won four state titles and college where he won two ACC titles.
“It just feels good to be back to what I’m used to, what I’m accustomed to – winning. My whole life that’s what I was used to,” said Sims. “Being back in this environment, my career, my play is going to get even higher. I was telling my wife that I never played in a Monday night game, a night football game, any of that in the NFL. Every (Thanksgiving) game we played was a blowout. It just feels good to be in the spotlight all over again.”
It makes sense to have Sims in these OTA’s because he’s new to the system.¬† They need him come in during these OTA’s and get one-on-one focused attention on learning the system.
Sims must know get to know this defense well enough to play fast and contribute to forcing turnovers.¬† The Eagles will be looking to him for forced fumbles and interceptions and you can’t do that if you’re not totally sure of what your assignments are.
“My whole career I was taught speed, speed, speed,” Sims said. “In this defense, playing the WILL linebacker position, that’s what it enables me to do. That’s why I’m so excited to be here. I’m picking all of the coaches’ brains. I’m trying to learn as much as I can. I’m happy to be here.”
The Eagles made it clear that they expected him to be here for these OTA’s. It says to me that they know he needs to be here based on what they saw at the mini-camp.
‘They asked me to come,” said Sims. ”But I feel it’s going to help me. Like I said, the more reps I get, the better it’s going to make me. But I’m happy to be out here. It’s not really that hard. We’re just going out there and going over coverages and just refreshing your brain.”
Remember Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott saying, “there’s a shark in the water and it’s Ernie Sims”.¬† They made Sims a starter without him having to come in here and take it away from Akeem Jordan.¬† They want more big plays from their linebackers and Sims along with middle linebacker Stewart Bradley will be the guys counted on him to establish the personality of this defense.
Sims has been brought in to be an enforcer with hard hits.¬† You’ve got to be sure of what you’re doing before you’re going to be able to put yourself in position to deliver those kill shots.
where are all the complaints that they “gave” the starting job to simms over jordan like the complaints on this site about them choosing kolb over vick??
Wait the Lions didn’t give their rookies special attention to help them out to get them ready to help the team? What a screwed up organization. That just seems to be common sense. No wonder they were consistently bad for so long.
green, I think some of the other guys were maybe complaining because they really believe Vick may be a better QB. Not that I agree, just saying. In this case, who exactly is Akeem Jordan? No one is complaining about him not starting because he isn’t that great and obviously people don’t think he’s worth complaining about. 2 totally different situations and different players. It would be different if someone was brought in here and took the job of a player than a lot of people think is good enough to be the starter. Our linebacker stunk. Any change there is a breath of fresh air.
Gib, yeah no wonder so many of their rookies have been busts. Crappy organization. I mean how can you not have rookie OTAs?
scorp- i was making the point that on several posts here guys have been railing about kolb should not have been handed the job.
I am hoping that Simms can return to the beast that he was at FSU. Detroit really sucks as an organization, so with any luck we can have a a real upgrade at Will. Jordan should be a career back-up.
I don’t really have a good feel about E Sims,
He is awful small..looks more like a Safety than a LB to me..
Why would a Defensive minded coach like J Schwartz of the Lions get rid of a former 1st Rd pick
4 years ago for 5th Rd pick this year from the Eagles… It’s not like the Lions have proven depth at
the LB position…
I like Akeem, but I’m biased because he’s from my alma mater (James Madison University). But I REALLY like Sims and he was actually one of the players I was hoping the Eagles would draft back in 2006. Bunkley was also a guy I wanted, which is who the Eagles took.
great article G…loving these reports
Paul: if he doesn’t fit his system then he shouldn’t keep him just because the previous management invested in him. The new coach and GM don’t care that he was a 1st round pick by who used to be running the show. It sounds like what they wanted their LBs to do is different from what we want ours.
Also don’t disregard the contract. I think Simms is in the last year of his deal. If they don’t think he’s the perfect fit and he’ll be gone next year anyway take what you can get and try to build through the draft.
BTW they didn’t get a 5th round pick they got Tony Scheffler who is actually a pretty good TE. The Bronco’s seem to be the ones on paper that got the short end of this deal with their fire sale of players.
I beleive Bronco’s got 2 5th Round picks in return for Sheffler, (1 from Lions and the 1 from Eagles)
Lions got Sheffler and the Eagles got Sims who will be in Philly for this 1 year most likely .
Paulman, too small as in many peoples’ early visual impressions of Brain Dawkins, Brian Westbrook and Desean Jackson? Trent Cole? Come on man, haven’t you learned to not judge a small Eagles player by his ‘cover’ yet?
It’s great to see a veteran putting in the extra work. Sims is showing the rookies what it takes to “stay” in the NFL.
I’m from the old school and believe linebackers should be a bit larger, but the league has changed and many teams are going to smaller linebackers. I hope we’re able to stop the run.
Why would Sims’ size be an issue? Same weight as Jordan, only an inch shorter, but faster. “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog.” Don’t need any more Dhani Jones types, and they better not misuse Sapp like they did Gocong. We just need more guys on defense who can lay the lumber on the enemy… time to have an aggressive, and smart young team.
Go Flyers!!!
Paulman look around the NFL all these coaches think they know more then the next coach, they want players to fit into their systems or players that they had a hand in drafting. Schwartz had no investment in Sims so he didn’t care what round he was drafted in.