Paul Domowitch: Dawkins' departure leaves Eagles with leadership gap

QUINTIN MIKELL still hasn't been able to bring himself to watch the tape of the Eagles' 32-25 NFC Championship Game loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Even now, 3 1/2 months later, with a new season lurking just around the next bend, the memory still is too painful.

"To this day, I can play the game back in my head, but I still haven't watched it," the second-team All-Pro strong safety said. "It just makes me sick. I know exactly every play that I messed up on, and I can play it back in my head over and over again.

"I'll eventually sit down and watch it. Probably before training camp. Not yet, though. It still hurts too much right now."

The Eagles' defense went into that game with more confidence than Mario Lopez at a singles bar. It had given up just 65 points and one touchdown pass - one touchdown pass! - in the previous six games. Seven weeks earlier, it had intercepted Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner three times and held him to a .538 completion percentage in a pathetically easy, 48-20 Thanksgiving night win at the Linc.

It was a different story in January, though. Throwing the ball underneath more than the Eagles expected, Warner completed 14 of 17 first-half passes, including three TD passes to Larry Fitzgerald, to give the Cardinals a 24-6 halftime lead. Then, after the Eagles rallied and took the lead in the fourth quarter, the defense let down again, giving up a nearly 8-minute-long, game-winning scoring drive.

"I don't think that game was indicative of our defense," Mikell said. "They changed things up. They had a good game plan. I think we had a good game plan, too. We just didn't execute. If we could go back, there's definitely a few things we'd probably change. At the end of the day, you live and learn and get better."

It has been a tough offseason for Mikell and the rest of the Eagles' defense. Less than 10 days after the loss to the Cardinals, they learned that beloved defensive coordinator Jim Johnson had cancer. A month after that came word that the defense's leader, seven-time Pro Bowl free safety Brian Dawkins, had signed with the Denver Broncos.

Johnson was back on the field this weekend for the Eagles' postdraft minicamp, albeit on a motorized scooter because of the lingering back pain caused by the cancer and the fatigue from his radiation treatment.

"He's tough," Mikell said. "If him being out there doesn't prove it, nothing does. He just loves this game, loves being around us. And we love being around him."

While the defensive players found comfort in Johnson's presence at the minicamp, Dawkins' departure is going to take some time getting used to.

At 35, he clearly wasn't the player he was 4, 5 years ago. Last year, Mikell's emergence allowed Johnson to more or less flip-flop his safeties, with Mikell handling a lot of the coverage duties ordinarily handled by the free safety, and Dawkins playing closer to the line of scrimmage as a quasi-strong safety and focusing on run support and blitzing.

Truthfully, between second-year man Quintin Demps, who will get first crack at the starting free safety job, and newcomer Sean Jones, the Eagles shouldn't have too much trouble replacing Dawkins the player. Replacing Dawkins the leader, though, will be a little more difficult.

"It's kind of different [without him here]," said defensive end Trent Cole, who will be one of the players, along with Mikell, defensive tackle Mike Patterson, cornerback Sheldon Brown and middle linebacker Stewart Bradley, counted on to fill the leadership void.

"Dawk was a great leader," Mikell said. "You always heard his voice. But he rubbed off on everybody. Because of him, everybody knows how things should be around here. Now that he's gone, there will be [other] people stepping up, making sure we stay on the straight and narrow."

No defensive player was influenced more by Dawkins than Mikell, a former undrafted free agent who has developed into one of the league's top safeties. Dawkins was Mikell's mentor. He taught him how to be a player and taught him how to be a man.

"I had been kind of preparing myself for [the minicamp without Dawkins] ever since he signed with Denver," Mikell said. "But it doesn't really hit you until you get out there.

"I miss him. We all miss him. But at the same time, we have to come together. We can't look back and say we wish this or wish that. We've got to go out and do it. My goal is to get all of the young guys ready as much as possible.

"We have a good nucleus of guys back. We understand Jim's defense. We're young, we're fast and we're physical. I think it's going to be a good year. But we still have to work hard to get there."*

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