Bucs Sign Trotter

Unsure how Barrett Ruud is going to pan out at middle linebacker, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were set to sign four-time Pro Bowler Jeremiah Trotter on Monday as an insurance policy, according to sources close to Trotter.

A nine-year veteran, Trotter, 30, was a free agent after being released Aug. 21 by the Philadelphia Eagles. He reportedly agreed to a one-year contract with Tampa Bay.

He was scheduled to fly to Tampa on Monday night to sign the deal. The team had not officially announced the move as of Monday evening. It was unclear who was released from the 53-man roster to create a spot for Trotter.

Trotter will practice with the team for the first time on Wednesday. The players are off today.

The Eagles released Trotter reportedly because their coaches believed Trotter had lost a step.

Trotter worked out for the Buccaneers on Aug. 23, in front of head coach Jon Gruden and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, among others.

Physically, at 250 pounds on a 6-foot-1 frame, he is heavier than the Buccaneers like their linebackers, a position where there has always been an emphasis on speed.

..Continue reading at the HeraldTribune.com>>

Trotter Tribute

Johnson Backs Gaither

THE CLEAR message from Jim Johnson yesterday was that he is enthusiastic about having Omar Gaither as his starting middle linebacker.

Maybe it was a predictable message - you'd hardly expect the Eagles to release a player like Jeremiah Trotter without the defensive coordinator being on board with the decision - but it was revealing, nonetheless. As Trotter himself noted in his extraordinary farewell address, this wasn't something Andy Reid just woke up and decided to do one cloudy morning.

In fact, when Trotter said he knew Reid didn't want to release him, he might have been giving a bit of insight behind the scenes, over the 6 months or so since the coaching staff finished its review of 2006 game tape. Johnson wasn't going to say anything that would slight Trotter yesterday, but when he said such things as "[Gaither] is a playmaker, and we wanted to get him on the field; it's as simple as that," you can rest assured that it wasn't Reid, the head coach with the offensive background, who was pushing to get Gaither on the field.

The picture that has emerged over the past few days is of two things happening to produce Tuesday's surprise Trotter departure, one event leading directly to the other. Johnson decided, over the weekend, after watching film of the Carolina game, to make Gaither the starter. Gaither practiced in that role Monday, with Trotter as the backup.

Once that happened, Reid made the decision that it would be better to cut the cord cleanly than to try to fit Trotter's dominant, oversized personality into a reserve role, after four Pro Bowl invitations. Then Reid held his meeting with Trotter, and what occurred after that, everybody in Eagles Nation knows by now.

There are things we still don't know. If Trotter had said he really wanted to hang on as a backup, would Reid have allowed that? Were other players consulted, before the final decision was made? Is this just another minor bump in the road, like the departures of prominent leaders in the past (Troy Vincent, Duce Staley etc.), or have Johnson and Reid seriously overestimated the remaining defensive leadership and linebacking talent?

..Continue reading at the Daily News>>

Report: Jeremiah Trotter Cut

According the Anthony Gargano of 610WIP, the Eagles have released veteran MLB Jeremiah Trotter. No official word from the Eagles yet, but Gargano is a close friend of Trott, and you would have to think that this information was given to him by Jeremiah himself.

I think this sucks personally. Trotter vowed to come into camp in shape, ready to go, but I guess the coaches did not like what they saw from him in the pre-season. I know this is how the NFL works, but it just sucks to see one of your favorite players just get tossed to the curb like that.

UPDATE: Trotter to have a 1 pm press conference today. Apparently Reid gave him the option of retire, or be cut, and Jeremiah asked to be released. They had an agreement that if he was not where they wanted him to be, they would release him now so he could find a new team to play for.

The story has been confirmed by ESPN, and the Eagles have already replaced Trott on the depth chart with Omar Gaither.

The home page has confirmed this as well. Here is a quote from Andy Reid.

"Jeremiah is one of my favorite guys," said head coach Andy Reid. "There's no question that this is the toughest part of this job. He and I met about this last night and it was very emotional for both of us. Jeremiah and I have been together for many years and he's played a vital role in helping this team win a lot of football games. He developed himself into a Pro Bowl middle linebacker through a lot of hard work and desire. In my mind, he will always be a Philadelphia Eagle and I'm sure he feels the same way. I wish he and his family nothing but the best."

>>PhiladelphiaEagles.com

>>Eagles LIVE has fan reactions, interviews from Andy Reid, Trotter, Takeo Spikes, and Brian Dawkins.

Run Defense is Key to Success

I think more than any other area, the Eagles run defense will decide how successful they are this year.

Here's an interesting article by Dave Spadaro of PhiladelphiaEagles.com about Jim Johnson and the Eagles run defense .

The Eagles will run the football well if they choose to do so. If they run it well they will destroy teams on the ground and in the air. McNabb has an outstanding group of young recievers, who I think will turn heads this year. I've got a lot of confidence in the Eagles offense. But the defense I'm not as sure about. They will destroy teams on 3rd down with their coverage and pass rush but they'll struggle if they can't stop the run, so I consider the run defense, the key to their season.

Jim doesn't plan on making any major changes when it comes to stopping the run. He's going to rely on bigger, better players doing a better job of executing their defensive assignments in order to stop opposing running games. Jim plans on rotating his defensive linemen and he'd better follow through with it. The run defense went into the tank when Johnson stopped rotating his smallish defensive line. If the Eagles defensive line unit gets tired, they'll get destroyed because they're undersized. Andy needs to look over Jim's shoulder and make sure he rotates that line each and every game.
..Read More at GCobb.com>>

Trotter working to regain old form

Linebacker has a role model in the secondary.


By Bob Brookover
Inquirer Staff Writer
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/20070512_Trotter_working_to_regain_old_form.html
Jeremiah Trotter already knows how he wants the story of his 2007 season to unfold, and he's not afraid to admit that he intends to plagiarize the work of a teammate.

He wants to duplicate Brian Dawkins' experience.

"People were saying he was done two years ago," Trotter said earlier this week.
"And last year, B. Dawk came back like a wild animal. To me, he should have been
in the top two or three vote- getters for defensive player of the year. Even
when we were struggling on defense, he was the one guy that played week in and
week out. That's an example of how you can turn it around."

The Eagles middle linebacker realizes that there's a growing population out there that believes his best days are behind him and that 2006 signaled the beginning of the end of an NFL career that has already spanned eight seasons, half of which landed him a spot in the Pro Bowl.

"I had a bad year for me," Trotter said. "It was an average year. It was great at times, but by the end of the season, I got worn down a little bit. The Eagles' fans and the organization were used to seeing me play at a high level, so when you don't have a great year, there are going to be questions. The knee issue comes up and people start talking about your age.

"I'm still young. I'm only 30 years old. I'm not worried about my knees. I'm excited about this year and I feel great."

The next three days should be interesting because the post-draft minicamp, which begins today at the NovaCare Complex, always offers the first glance at how the coaching staff plans to use its players for the coming season. Everything, of course, is subject to change once the pads go on in training camp and the preseason games take place, but this is where the initial plan is hatched.

Trotter will be lining up at middle linebacker this morning when the No. 1 defense takes the field. But he realizes he won't be on the field as much this season as he was last year, and he's fine with that.

"I think the goal is to have me average 2½ downs," Trotter said. "I'll be out
there on first down and second down and sometimes on third down, depending on
the situation. I'm sure any opportunity they can get to give me a rest, they're
going to want to do that. I'm thankful that they want to take care of my
well-being."

A year ago, Trotter was on the field almost all the time. The plan was to use Shawn Barber in the middle on passing downs, but the veteran linebacker missed three games and had to leave a few others because of various injuries. Omar Gaither, who finished the year as the starting weakside linebacker, figures to be the middle linebacker on passing downs this season.

Trotter thinks he also wore down because the Eagles had such a difficult time stopping the run. They finished 26th in the NFL, allowing 136.4 yards per game.

"The more teams run the ball, the more pounding you're going to take," Trotter said. "I'm not getting any younger, but when you don't stop the run the way you're supposed to, teams are going to keep running it. I don't think I was the only player that got worn down last year. I think other defensive linemen and linebackers got worn down, too."

The Eagles believe help has arrived in the form of Takeo Spikes, a two-time Pro Bowler acquired in a trade with the Buffalo Bills.

"Oh, man, I was excited to get a player of his caliber," Trotter said. "I think teams felt like they had to put a body on me when they wanted to run the ball, and that's what happens when you play at a certain level. When you add a guy like Takeo Spikes, that's another guy who makes plays, and he's going to help me a lot."

Trotter also has tried to help himself this off-season by changing his workout schedule. Immediately after last season, there was speculation that Trotter had arrived at training camp overweight and out of shape.

"I rested a lot" after the 2005 season, Trotter said. "I was the only one on the team that went to the Pro Bowl, and then I had [knee] surgery right after the season, so my off-season was a lot shorter. My mind-set was to rest my body.

"What I learned from that situation is that there are other ways to rest your body. This year, I started working out a lot sooner. Three days after the season was over, I started working out with light weights and high reps. My weight wasn't as much a problem last year as my muscle mass being down. I wasn't as strong as normal, and I've always taken pride in my strength. This year, my muscle mass is back to where it usually is."

Now, Trotter and the Eagles are hoping the linebacker's elite level of play returns, too.

"I still believe with every bone in my body that my best years are ahead of me,"
Trotter said. "And this year, everybody is going to see that."

Trott can really make you a beleiver. He is a good talker, but take that with a grain of salt. I remember last year, he said his goal was to win defensive player of the year, and we saw how that turned out. We'll see what happens. I am still a big Axe-Man fan.

Demotions for Trotter, S. Brown?

THE OFFSEASON addition of Takeo Spikes and the subtractions of Dhani Jones and Darwin Walker means the Eagles will open the season with at least three new defensive starters.
Spikes has been penciled in at weakside linebacker. Chris

Gocong is the front-runner to replace Jones on the strong side, and assuming he doesn't get lost on the way to Lehigh, 2006 first-round pick Brodrick Bunkley will be Walker's starting replacement at right defensive tackle.

But don't discount the possibility of that list of new starters growing by two before the Eagles check into their hotel in Green Bay for the Sept. 9 season opener against the Packers.

While defensive coordinator Jim Johnson said the other day that Jeremiah Trotter still is the team's starting middle linebacker, his inclusion of the words "right now" made it clear the four-time Pro Bowler is going to have to prove this summer that he still deserves the job.

With Spikes taking over at WILL, second-year man Omar Gaither, who did a solid job there after replacing Matt McCoy in early December, will move back to the middle. Johnson said
Gaither will be the team's MIKE linebacker in its nickel package, but also will be given a shot at beating Trotter out for the starting job.

Then there's the right cornerback position. Right now, that job belongs to Sheldon Brown, who has been the starter there the last three seasons. But keep your eye on William James, who is gaining ground on the outside.

Johnson is very high on James, a former Giant who was one of the league's better young corners before injuring his back 2 years ago. He called him the key to his secondary the other day. Not "a" key. "The" key.

Right now, James, who signed with the Eagles last November but played in just four of 10 games because of injuries, is listed as the team's third corner behind Brown and Lito Sheppard.
But Johnson has told both Brown and James, who signed a new 1-year deal with the Eagles in March, that this is going to be a may-the-best-man-win situation this year.

"William is a guy who can start," Johnson said. "When he played last year, he played well. We just didn't get enough out of him as far as being healthy on the field."

Asked whether James will be given an opportunity to beat out Brown this summer, Johnson said,

"I think [James] is a
starting [quality] cornerback. Anytime you get that
kind of
competition, sure, he's going to push the other guy.
"But
Sheldon's a good corner. We expect Sheldon to have a good year. But the best
players are going to play.''

Brown has had his ups and downs the last two seasons. Johnson moves him inside on passing downs and he has been very effective in that role, but he doesn't seem to be nearly as confident on the outside.

There has been speculation that the Eagles might consider moving him to safety at some point in the future, perhaps after Brian Dawkins retires. Last year, Johnson often had him playing deep in some of his coverage schemes. While he's only 5-10, Brown is solidly built and can
deliver a good blow, as Saints

running back Reggie Bush found out in the playoffs.

"I haven't thought that far down the road," Johnson said.

"I still think he has good corner ability right now. He might not be able to make that transition.

A year down the road, maybe I'll think about it. Right now, I'm not thinking about it."

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/columnists/20070502_Paul_Domowitch___Demotions_for_Trotter__S__Brown_.html