IS WORRIED ABOUT ROLLINS' HAMMY
BETHLEHEM -- After the draft and free agency, it was hard to see how Joe Mays fit into the Eagles' crowded linebacking picture.
Turns out he didn't.
The Eagles traded Mays to the Denver Broncos for former Arizona Cardinals running back J.J. Arrington, a team source confirmed to the Daily News. If Arrington does not make the team, the Eagles will receive a sixth-round pick in 2012.
Arrington would have been a really exciting pickup a few years ago, when he looked like a pass-catching back with Brian Westbrook-type potential. But microfracture surgery on his right knee last year changed that picture drastically.
Arrington, who didn't play last season, was quoted this week as saying his knee is "getting better every day," but the Broncos hadn't started hitting yet, which Denver coaches said would be a big hurdle.
An Eagles source said Arrington still has to pass a physical.
Arrington (5-9, 212) was the 44th player taken in the 2005 draft, from Cal. Mays was a sixth-round pick in 2008 from North Dakota State.
The Eagles had high hopes for Mays, but he flubbed a chance at the middle linebacking job and faded into the margins.
Arrington played a prominent role on the Cardinals team that defeated the Eagles in the NFC title game after the 2008 season. His knee started bothering him right after the Super Bowl loss to the Steelers.
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood-spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team. You can now follow Paul Domowitch on Twitter
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