Eagles Are Prepared For The Absence Of Mike Patterson

It wasn’t good news to learn yesterday that Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson will miss training camp and possibly a good amount of the regular season while recovering from off season brain surgery.   But it is good to know that the Eagles are ready for it.

Patterson’s health was part of the reason that the Birds were so happy that Mississippi State defensive tackle Fletcher Cox was available for them to draft in the first round.

They need better pass rush pressure from their defensive tackles, now with the addition of Cox, they’ll be able to line up the beside veteran Cullen Jenkins on third downs, and that will be a handful for opposing offensive lines.

The Birds re-signed free agent defensive tackle Antonio Dixon, as well as Derek Landri.

Dixon is one of the best run stopper of the Birds defensive tackles.  He’s their biggest defensive tackle and he has shown the ability to collapse the pocket and beat his man one-on-one.

Landri showed us a year ago, that he can make plays versus both the run and the pass.  He’s not very big, but for a guy who was playing only part time, he made a lot of plays in the backfield, by beating offensive linemen with his quickness.

Backup Cedric Thornton has gained the confidence of the coaching staff, but we’ll see if he can stay on the roster during the summer.

This was a tough decision for Patterson who showed up to camp yesterday with his big smile.  He couldn’t have been smiling on the inside though.

Patterson was allowed to come back and play last season, but he hasn’t been given the okay again since he  had brain surgery during the off-season.  The Eagles knew there was a good chance that he could be delayed in his return to the football field.  Yesterday we learned that he won’t be allowed to participate in this year’s training camp.

I talked to Mike during one of the OTA’s and he was getting on me because I hadn’t seen him saying hello to me.  He was smiling and telling me how enthusiastic he was about getting back out on the field.  Mike also talked about being bored because he couldn’t be more involved in the workouts.

Yesterday we learned that he’ll have to wait longer before they let him play again.

“As you guys remember, last summer [DT] Mike [Patterson] had the [seizure and discovery of the arteriovenous malformation] here at Lehigh, and then in January, he had the AVM corrected through a surgical procedure with Dr. Robert Spetzler out of Phoenix, Arizona”, Eagles head coach Andy Reid told a group of media members yesterday. “As part of that process, he went through the healing process and worked out. We didn’t allow him at mini-camp or the OTAs, and that was on the doctor’s advice. As part of our timeframe, we were instructed to get an x-ray and CT scan of his head to look at the healing and send it off to Phoenix, and then a possible decision would be made about him returning to this camp. We anticipated that he would return for this camp, but the doctor in Phoenix has decided to hold him back right now. He will not participate in this training camp, and will be placed on our non-football injury list.”

I’m not shocked by the decision to hold Patterson out of practice because I was amazed when the doctors said he could keep playing in the first place.  Here you’ve got a guy who had a serious brain surgery and he’s going to be allowed to bash his head time and time again against offensive linemen.

It sounded dangerous to me and I don’t know if we’re ever going to see the doctors give the go ahead for him to bash his head against offensive linemen.  Chances are he will be back at one time or another, but he could miss most of the season.

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