For the past few days reports out of Philly were that fan favorite and one of mine too Jeremiah Trotter was being worked out for
a possible return to the Eagles and sooner not later was being thrown in the reports as well. It became official yesterday and my first thoughts were of how he last looked in “Midnight Green and Silver” during that 2007 playoff lost to the New Orleans Saints when the Saints set a franchise post season record with 435 total yards on the Eagles.
With Trotter in the middle the Saints chewed up 206 of those yards on the ground and threw in his direction repeatedly. That was a common site that season and the late Jimmy Johnson would often replace Trotter on passing downs something up until then would have never been thought of.
Now he’s back in Philly and the more I thought about it made more since. When middle linebacker Stewart Bradley was lost for the season when he tore his ACL in training camp my first thought was the Eagles’ need to bring in former Tampa Bay Pro-Bowler Derrick Brooks because they were talking about now splitting the duties between Joe Mays and Omar Gaither. Then after Mays didn’t pan out they gave the sole job to Gaither who ironically was the main reason the Eagles let Trotter go that summer after his disastrous effort following that Saints loss.
The problem with Gaither is he only weighs 230 pounds and he’s not a run stopper as evident on how this year’s version of the Saints averaged 4.6 yards on the ground and destroyed the Eagles 48 – 22.
Here’s the thing, every team in the division can run the ball very well. The Eagles start divisional play with their Monday Night game with the Washington Redskins on October 26th. With the loss of Johnson and team leader Brian Dawkins the Eagles need Trotter for that sole purpose of being that leader if anything else. If he plays decent it will be a plus, but leadership will take this team a little deeper in the playoffs. So I think the Eagles made a great move in bringing ol’ Axe back.
