Professor

Reid: Linebacker spots up for grabs | Daily News | 03/28/2007

excerpt:

PHOENIX - Your guess is as good as Andy Reid's right now as far as what the Eagles' starting linebacking corps is going to look like when the season opens in September.

The Eagles coach said this morning that he is not sure where newly acquired Takeo Spikes will end up playing and said the competition for all three linebacker spots is "wide open."

"We'll see," Reid said at the NFC coaches media breakfast at the NFL meetings. "That's a position that we need to play better at. I'm not making promises to anybody right now. That's open competition there. Wide open."

The Eagles acquired Spikes, a former two-time Pro Bowler, from the Buffalo Bills on Monday along with backup quarterback Kelly Holcomb. Spikes, 30, who is 2 years removed from an Achilles injury that cost him most of the 2005 season, has played all three linebacker positions during his career, including the middle.

"I don't have a problem putting him at any of the three spots," Reid said. "I haven't made up my mind yet how I'm going to do that. He's just a good football player."

Spikes' former Bills teammate, Troy Vincent, told the Daily News on Tuesday that Spikes was told he probably will be the Eagles WILL (weakside) linebacker. If that ends up being the case, second-year man Omar Gaither, who started the final eight games last season at WILL, probably would be moved to the middle and compete with veteran Jeremiah Trotter for the starting job. Spikes is scheduled to have his first news conference as a member of the Eagles later today at the NovaCare Complex.

It's still uncertain how things will shake out at strongside linebacker. While last year's starter, Dhani Jones, still is on the roster, he isn't expected to hold on to the job. Reid said the Eagles still are planning to give '06 third-round pick Chris Gocong, a college defensive end, an opportunity to win the job. He also mentioned former practice-squadder Torrance Daniels as a possibility.

"We didn't get to see Gocong last year," Reid said. "He got hurt and we never really got to see him in action there. You have he and Tank [Daniels], and Tank emerged kind of out of nowhere last year and showed us a little bit as the season went on.

"Tank can play weakside or strongside. He's got the size to play strongside, and he might have the best athletic ability of all of them. He's just a pretty fine athlete."

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Professor

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, who handled the play-calling after Jeff Garcia replaced injured Donovan McNabb at quarterback last season, will continue to do the play-calling in '07.

"I'll probably let Marty call 'em this year," Reid said. "I thought he did a nice job. I have a lot of trust in Marty. You have to remember, Marty and I go way back. I started doing that [giving up play-calling] with Brad [Childress]. And then at end of year, I started doing it with Marty. I stepped back and kind of watched when he was calling [the plays]. I felt real good about it. It freed me up to see a little bit more of what was going on."

* The Eagles will continue to run the ball as much in '07 with McNabb as they did late last year after Jeff Garcia took over. "It will probably be very similar, yeah," Reid said. "It'll probably be very similar to how we finished the season."


This is great news

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EaglesFan

This IS great. All spots for the LB unit are open, will be cool to see who will get them.

As for Marty continuing to do playcalling, I love it. He did a great job last season.

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2007 CFL Season: Argos 2-1