TRUSTS CHOOCH IN A PINCH
The Eagles acquired linebacker Will Witherspoon from St. Louis for wide receiver Brandon Gibson and a fifth-round pick in 2010.
Today is the NFL trading deadline and the Eagles clearly had a need at linebacker. Gibson looked good in training camp but has not been playing.
Andy Reid was clear about his intentions for Witherspoon, "I'm bringing [Witherspoon] in here to be my MIKE linebacker."
The moves comes on the heels of a rough performance by Jeremiah Trotter against the Raiders and Omar Gaither’s foot injury, although Gaither indicated that he did not think he was seriously hurt. Reid said Gaither will see a foot specialist.
Witherspoon, in his eighth season out of Georgia, sustained injuries to his hip and back in Sunday’s overtime loss at Jacksonville. The 29-year-old had to be assisted to the sidelines by trainers. An MRI indicated only a bruise.
Witherspoon, 6-1, 239, signed a 6-year, $33 million deal (including $15 million guaranteed) with St. Louis in 2006. In his first season with the Rams, he played in all 16 games and recorded a career-high 113 tackles and three sacks. In 2007 he recorded 110 tackles and a career-high seven sacks and was named Team MVP for 2007
In 2004, he played in Super Bowl for Carolina and had a career-high 16 tackles. He ended the campaign with a total of 99 tackles, one sack and one interception. He was a Panthers' third-round pick in 2002.
Reid also said there is a "good chance" that Todd Herremans will make his season debut against Washington on Monday night. The scan on his surgically repaired foot looked good, Reid said.
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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