Mike Maher

Even with the Philadelphia Eagles offense as big a question mark as it has been in the post-Torrence Small/Stanley Pritchett era, all of the off season excitement seems to be circling around the defense. Jevon Kearse is gone. Takeo Spikes is gone. Lito Sheppard is, well, still here. In are cornerback Asante Samuel and defensive end Chris Clemons, the two big splashes the Eagles made in the free agency pool, and Stewart Bradley, the second-year linebacker out of Nebraska getting his chance to start at middle linebacker.

The problem is that the Eagles don’t seem to learn their lessons. Clemons is replacing the last big-name defensive end they signed in free agency. Spikes isn’t the first veteran linebacker to be surprisingly let go (Jeremiah Trotter, twice). As for Sheppard, the last guy who showed up to training camp unhappy was named Terrell Owens. You may have heard of him.

Every football fan with access to a television, newspaper, or radio knows of the Lito Sheppard situation: Asante Samuel is the new hire who shows up to work and finds out the guy he is replacing hasn’t been fired yet. What many fans may not know is the names of these young Eagles linebackers.

Long gone are the glory days of William Thomas, Bill Romanowski and Seth Joyner. But also long gone are the forgettable names of Barry Gardner, Mark Simoneau and, yes, Levon Kirkland. Okay, so Kirkland was only with the Eagles for a year in 2002 at the end of his career, but it was still fun to watch him in pass coverage when teams threw on first or second down.

On July 21, the Eagles will roll into training camp with a starting linebacker corps of Omar Gaither (WILL), Stewart Bradley (MIKE) and Chris Gocong (SAM). Gocong started at SAM last year and finished with a solid 92 tackles, gaining more confidence from the coaching staff every week. Gaither, despite a rocky start, finished the year with an eye-opening 170 tackles at middle linebacker. With Gaither moving back over to the weak side to replace Spikes, Bradley will take over this season in the middle. This won’t be Bradley’s first rodeo, however, as he started a game in the middle last year. You may not remember that start, but I bet Drew Brees does. In his first start on December 23, Bradley sacked Brees and intercepted one of his passes.

This defense has every chance to be an exclamation point for the Eagles this season. However, it has an equal chance at being a big question mark for them. Brian Dawkins is going to be Brian Dawkins, even if he is a little bit older now. A solid defensive line is returning three of its four starters, and Clemons will surpass Kearse by leaps and bounds if he can merely find his way to the field. The variable is going to be this young linebacker corps, and whether or not they step up is going to be the key to the Eagles’ season.

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