One of the problems with playing Stewart Bradley at the middle linebacker spot is the fact that you can’t have him play the strongside linebacker position, also. Bradley is by far the team’s best linebacker, but there’s only one of him.
The former Nebraska Cornhusker is not only the best run-stopping linebacker the Eagles have, he’s also the team’s best pass coverage linebacker. Ernie Sims is faster than Bradley but not by much. Sims doesn’t have the football acumen or instincts, plus Bradley’s change of direction skills are better.
The Eagles would be a much-improved defense, if Bradley were playing Sam, Mike and Will. It’s too bad they can’t merge Omar Gaither’s football acumen and instincts with Sims’ speed and athleticism. Akeem Jordan is a good athlete, but he’s not real physical and he’s more of a weakside linebacker than a strongside backer.
With Bradley, the Eagles have a decent set of linebackers but without him, they’re awful. He missed the Detroit game with a concussion and that’s one of the reasons why Detroit’s Jahvid Best and Brandon Pettigrew had career days last week.
It would be great if the Eagles could put Bradley at the strongside linebacker position and line him up on the head of Jacksonville tight end Mercedes Lewis and have him beat him up as he came off the line of scrimmage. You have to delay a tight end’s release or you’re asking for trouble.
One of the reasons the Eagles have so much trouble covering the tight end is because they line their strongside linebackers up off the ball and inside over the offensive tackle. This allows tight ends to get a free release. If they let the strongside linebacker line up over the tight ends they’ll be more successful covering the tight end.
The Birds could also use Bradley to cover running back Maurice Jones-Drew on Sunday. Jones-Drew will be the main ball carrier for Jacksonville and he’ll be utilized in the screen game as well.
It’s too bad Bradley won’t be covering him all the time because they will mean Sims will be covering him at times. Sims is caught out of position far too much. Expect the Jaguars to go after him when they him when they get the chance.
I think the Eagles messed up by not drafting a MLB in the early rounds and move Bradley back outside
I think their overall Defense would have been better and could line up opposing teams TE’s and or cover backs out the backfield and even blitz on occasions… This 2010 Draft was not particularly strong with
ILB once you got past R McClain (who will be the Defensive Rookie of the Year for the Raiders)
S Lee who the Cowboys traded picks with the Eagles to get, but B Spikes lasted until the end of the 2nd Round (#62 Overall) and was scooped up by the Patriots, Pat Angerer by the Colts as the 63rd Pick
and some good ones in the 3rd & 4t hRound (Sharpton,Dillard,,Muckleroy)
I thought a couple years back, the Eagles made a mistake in Trading their 1st Rd pick to the Panthers
and passed on OT J Otah) who will probably end up being a solid 10 year player who has a good shot at multiple Pro-Bowls at a premium position. I am tired of the Eagles having one of the weakest LB corps in the NFC every season and the fact that they simply don’t value to position enough… All the top Defenses have excellent LB coprs who can pass-coverage and get after the passer, why does it seem the Eagles cannot do this, It is their schemes,their coaches or the players they select or a combination of all 3, whatever the reason needs to be addressed and maybe a more aggresive scheme,different coaches and players are needed but something has to change.. Bradley is very good, but he is only one player and can’t play all 3 positions at the same time.. He needs some help..
I hope and pray that stewart bradley….. knock on wood…. does not get injured this whole season!!! If we lose him the flood gates are going 2 open just like last year. The eagles have just got to realize you need big men to knock open an offensive line!!! I like bunkley but mike patterson is not a solid big man what… he weights about 290 and is 5’11 inches if not that… If bradley goes out we will be playing “MUSICAL LINEBACKERS”, “YOU putting sims in the middle, YOU take sims right out, YOU put jordan in, AND the team scores all about, THEY score a freakin touchdown, AND the eagle fans pout, THATS what it’s ALLLLLLL ABOOOOUT!!! THE OL” and reid HOKEY POKEY!!!! AND the same goes for the offensive line!!! Get gaither outta there please he’s not solid!!! hell he might knows the playbook but hes not executing on the field!!!!! THere has to be somebody out there who can back up bradley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jemar chaney is undersized hes about 235lbs. a offensive lineman will plow him over!!! We need someone solid!!! Thats all we have is a bunch of speedy LB’s thats more for nickel and Dime packages!! Why we didnt give will witherspoon another year? he played 18 games straight last year with no bye week!!! he would be solid because he is a smart player and he knows how to read the QB well… Not like “OMAR SO FAR” outta the gap!!!!
G you definitely know your stuff espically about the linbacker position. we havent had a true strong side linbacker since carlos emmons left town. stewart bradley is our best backer and really belongs on the strong side. we should have signed a veteran mlb ( keith bullough ) hope fully we will improve in this area
I think Joe Mays could have played in the Middle with Bradley and Fokou as the OLB better than
O Gaither or the Rookie J Cheney, They screwed up with entire LB Corps by getting rid of Mays/T White and by keeping Gaither and acquiring Sims in th e1st place who is just not disciplined enough…t
I think the problem with Mays was he was having trouble with the coverage calls. He was ok against the runs but if a team sees him in there they will call pass. He just couldn’t understand the system. Gaither is ther other way around. He knows the plays and coverages put can’t perform them. Can we just find a guy who can do both. Doesn’t have to be Ray Lewis but don’t need to be a liability.
Emmons was a great strongside LB for the Eagles. Who is the best SAM in the game right now?
MJD had a pretty good day today. Clearly the run defense looked better, but as I suspected the defense still looks susceptible to the run. It’s fortunate that the offense got ahead.
Talking about woulda/coulda/shoulda situations or completely ridiculous ideas about cloning players doesn’t make a lot of sense when you reorganize your players to improve the overall defense with a couple of personnel tweaks. I think Sims is not great (just the one pressure this week against Jax) because he’s not familiar enough with the defensive system. I thought that when the immediately made the trade and named him the starting WILL sight unseen. I like the fact that they started rotating tackles more this week. I still would like to see Dixon starting and Trevor Laws is adding some nice interior pressure.
The best starting LB group that would help the Eagles D the most would be Jordan, Gaither, Bradley. (W,M,S)
Figure out how to draft linebackers after the season.