<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The owners may be away, but that didn't prevent the Eagles from completing a trade Monday night as the team acquired linebacker Takeo Spikes and quarterback Kelly Holcomb from the Bills in exchange for defensive tackle Darwin Walker and a conditional draft pick in 2008. More details to follow .</div>
Decent Pick-up. The Eagles defense should focus on getting young, not getting older, injury stricken players.If Spikes can stay healthy, it'll be a steal. If he doesn't....well they just gave away a good DT and a draft pick.
A good DT?We upgraded over Walker with Reagor, someone younger with a similar skill set. We couldn't really keep both of them, and now its more clear that we got Reagor because Buffalo was set on trading Spikes for Walker. We got better at DT so far this off-season.Spikes is getting older and slowing down, no doubt, but we've got a group of young LBs behind him and Trotter; and I'll admit, I wasn't too optimistic with the roles they would have played without Spikes here. We were looking at relying on Gocong to be a HUGE second-year player at SLB and DE, two places he hasn't played in this type of defense, and McCoy to prove that he's not a bust, something he was on track to do last year before getting slightly hurt and then trampled over.Should Spikes go down, then McCoy and Gocong will have to step up, yes. I hope to add a rookie there to push McCoy, and then we'll utilize Gocong as a backup at multiple spots on the defense. That would allow Spikes to provide a bridge to McCoy and/or the rookie for '08 or even '09 if he holds up; we develop our LBs very, very slowly. But we've solidified the starting spot, and this addition will allow us to move Gocong all over the defense rather than rely on him playing more SAM than anything else. That's the key here I think. We can move Howard inside more often, and with Cole/Howard/Reagor/Kearse, with some Gocong and Juqua Thomas in there on occation, we'll generate one of the league's best pass rushes.Obviously stopping the run has been the problem though, but Spikes helps us in that area aswell, and we hope Bunkley will step up in that area and be a force inside.I like the direction of this defense and look to add further in the draft.
Wow, I just wated a minute of my life reading that biased nonsense.But hey! Were football fans. And if you arn't supportive of your team, well you arn't a fan
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Knightz @ Mar 26 2007, 06:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Wow, I just wated a minute of my life reading that biased nonsense.But hey! Were football fans. And if you arn't supportive of your team, well you arn't a fan </div>Solid counter-argument :thumbsup: I'm not saying we're a GREAT team now, I didn't even mention anything about the team as a whole. I said I liked the move and the direction of the defense, and SUPPORTED that with how each player is going to now be used, and the possibilities of what we can do with them.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (GaMeTiMe @ Mar 26 2007, 05:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>A good DT?We upgraded over Walker with Reagor, someone younger with a similar skill set. We couldn't really keep both of them, and now its more clear that we got Reagor because Buffalo was set on trading Spikes for Walker. We got better at DT so far this off-season.Obviously stopping the run has been the problem though, but Spikes helps us in that area aswell, and we hope Bunkley will step up in that area and be a force inside.I like the direction of this defense and look to add further in the draft.</div>Overall it was a pretty good post, but...I agree that Walker is nothing special, but I don't really think Reagor is either. Reagor is just another undersized DT (Converted from DE due to Injuries) who is worthless against the run. Much like Walker is. Pretty much new face, same old crap.And unless Bunkley does some major growing up in Season 2, it's going to be more of the same against the Run probably. As for the deal, it depends what the Conditional Draft Pick is, if it's a Day 1 Pick then I would say that the Bills definately won this deal. If it's a Day 2 pick, then the Eagles won the deal IMO.
