IS GLAD SPRING TRAINING IS FINALLY HERE
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.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with 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 started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth 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 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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