Eagles to clash with "brother" Dawkins
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Eagles
Eagles to clash with "brother" Dawkins
Jeff McLane, Inquirer Staff Writer
Get out your No. 20 jerseys, Brian Dawkins is coming home.
The former Eagles safety may play for the enemy now, but there are sure to be plenty of No. 20s at the Linc on Sunday when the Eagles host Dawkins' Denver Broncos.
"I think it will be neat for him to come back here," Eagles coach Andy Reid said today. "It think the crowd will be great for him and all that."
Dawkins left in the off-season via free agency, but he also left amid a cloud of controversy. It's become a he-said-organization-said-type story, but the gist of Dawkins' leaving Philadelphia had a lot to do with money. The 13-year Eagle ended up getting a better deal from the Broncos than what the Eagles were offering and he left.
"It worked out great for Brian," Reid said. "That's what's important there. It was something that Denver needed to do. Listen, it worked out fine for him and his family. Would we have loved to have kept him here? Yeah. But they did a nice job with it."
Dawkins has played a prominent role for the 8-6 Broncos. He's second on the team with 100 tackles, has seven tackles for loss and two interceptions.
So how did things work out for the 10-4, playoff-bound Eagles?
"We've done OK," Reid said. "We've won a couple games."
The Eagles, though, have had a hard time replacing Dawkins in the secondary. And they didn't bring Jeremiah Trotter back because they thought he would become a Pro Bowler again. The defense was missing some of the fire and leadership Dawkins provided. Reid was asked what he's missed most about Dawkins.
"First of all, you miss him as a person," Reid said. "He's a great guy. He was a big part of us getting to where we have gotten as an organization. To say I don't miss him on a daily basis, I used to enjoy seeing him and being around him. He brought a lot of energy. I have nothing but good things to say about he or [Correll Buckhalter]. Those were two of my favorite guys. They're doing a heck of job for Denver now."
Buckhalter, the Eagles' second-leading rusher last season, also left this past off-season.
There will be a lot of emotion in the stadium but it probably won't rival what both Dawkins and his former teammates will feel in their gut before the game.
"It's going to be really emotional, especially at the beginning of the game," safety Quintin Mikell said. "I think that once the first hit happens, everything will go away. Once that first kickoff happens, it will all go away."
Reid equated it to a fight between brothers.
"I always say that when you're a kid and you get into a fight with your brother, for a second there it's one of the most vicious fights you've ever been in and then you love each other afterwards," he said. "That's what this will be."
In other Eagles-related news, Reid said that he anticipates Brian Westbrook being cleared tomorrow to return to action this Sunday. The running back will undergo tests tomorrow. Concussions have sidelined Westbrook in seven of the last eight games.
Jeremy Maclin will return to practice on Wednesday, but Reid could not predict if the wide receiver's foot would be healed enough for him to return to game action. Maclin missed Sunday's 27-13 win over the 49ers.
In other injury news, Michael Vick has a quadriceps bruise and is "sore," according to Reid. His status is day-to-day, as is that of safety Quintin Demps, who has a "slight" ankle sprain.
My advice to Djax... Get out of bounds and keep your on a swivel. And as Deion Sanders would say make some good buisness decision.— BIGGZ043- shanks - You are an idiot! 'Nuff said.— Herc142
- it never surprises me how many GM's on this board don't know what they're talkin' bout— lateofphilly
- LateofPhilly...you wouldn't have wanted Dawkins on this team for 2 more years? The Macho Harris / Sean Jones combo has really lit it up this year, right?— Dean1
- I will be glad to see him in the vet, just enough to say goodbye, and take your sorry Broncos with ya.— starbird
- Can you imagine how odd & cool it would be to see Dawkins clean DeSean's clock?!! I would love for McNabb to throw a pass over the middle to DeSean & Dawkins just sitting there waiting to put a lick on him!— Phillyflavaless
- It's still real simple. The Eagles have not, and will not, pay a guy big money at that stage of his career. As great as he's been, Dawk had some rough patches last year where he looked like he was hanging on. And Denver stepped up with very big money that no capped team would have matched. It's great to see him and Buck playing well for them. But after the intros, it'll be just another game, one they are likely to win.— PhillySubsMac
- Dawkins was the man, but let's not forget that the defense is better this year than last year. Dawk didn't have a great year last year. He certainly isn't done as a player, but I can't see why some people are still crying. Also, people forget last year's conference game where the offense took the lead from the Cardinals and gave them the ball back with over 7 minutes on the clock and the Cardinals ate up the clock and our defense lead by B-Dawk. Where was B-Dawk's leadership on that drive? McNabb certainly has his faults but B-Dawk has gotten a major pass in this town. B-Dawk lead many defensive units that gave up major yardage and scores at crucial times. McNabb always got the blame but B-Dawk got the glory.— MrBigDizzle
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- Good for us! The postings have a nice, positive flavor too often missed here. We love him, we miss him but no one wants to hang management because he is gone. We will need to beat his Broncos this week. That will clear the board for our game in Dallas. There COULD be an ENORMOUS upside if we win that one! If Minnesota continues to slide, we could be playing for a first week bye. We won't know til that week-end, but we need to beat the Broncos FIRST. GO IGGLES!!!— TBear
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