Trotter to return to 'D' middle

Linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, who stormed out of Philadelphia with fists balled 2 years ago after an acrimonious divorce with the Birds, will sign a 1-year contract with the team today.

Trotter's deal will be for the NFL veteran minimum of $750,000, which is a far cry from the $6 million-plus-a-year he was looking for from the Eagles 2 years ago, or the 7-year, $35.5 million contract he ended up signing with the Washington Redskins, who released him on June 1.

The money isn't the only thing that has changed. In the 2001 season, Trotter was the Eagles' starting middle linebacker and on the way to his second Pro Bowl. This time he's coming in, at least initially, as the backup in the middle to returning starter Mark Simoneau.

Trotter's signing is contingent on his passing a physical today, but that isn't expected to be an issue. Club officials have declined to comment, but will hold a news conference after he takes the physical.

Trotter's agent, Jimmy Sexton, didn't return phone messages left by the Daily News.

The addition of the 27-year-old linebacker is a win-win situation for the Eagles. For starters, he'll cost them next to nothing. Players with at least 5 years of experience who sign veteran minimum contracts count only $450,000 against a team's cap.

Secondly, Trotter gives the Eagles much-needed depth at middle linebacker and some added flexibility in their entire linebacking corps. If they hadn't signed him, they were looking at going into training camp with inexperienced third-year men Justin Ena and Tyreo Harrison as the backups to Simoneau.

The addition of Trotter also allows defensive coordinator Jim Johnson the luxury of moving Simoneau to weakside linebacker if the starter there, Nate Wayne, struggles or gets injured. At the very least, Johnson will be able to rest the undersized Simoneau more this season and keep him fresh so that he doesn't wear down the way he did last season.

Two years ago, the odds of Trotter ever returning to the Eagles were about as good as George Dubya getting a Christmas card from Julian Bond. His exit from Eagleland was as bitter as that of any player in the Andy Reid era.

He was furious with the club for putting the "franchise" designation on him, and was even more furious 6 weeks later when the Eagles removed it and let him become an unrestricted free agent.

Sexton called the decision to remove the tag more than a month into the free-agency signing period an "underhanded move. " Trotter said the Eagles never had any intention of paying him the $5.5 million tender offer. "When they thought we were about to accept it, they took it off the table," he said then.

In an April 2002 interview with Comcast's Derrick Gunn, Trotter said: "I asked Andy, I said, 'Listen, do you not think I'm worth the money? Do you not think I'm one of the best linebackers in the NFL? ' And he couldn't answer me. He jumped all the way around the question. He wouldn't give me an answer . . . I am worth the money, but he just didn't want to pay me. "

Trotter eventually signed with the Redskins, but that was a bad marriage from the start. Trotter spent much of the '02 season struggling to learn coordinator Marvin Lewis' defense, which requires linebackers to flow to the ball rather than the downhill style favored by Johnson. Just when Trotter was starting to get the hang of Lewis' system, he tore up his knee in the 12th game of the season. He rebounded last season and led the team in tackles with 129 in 16 games. But his play didn't have much of an effect on the Redskins' overall defensive performance. They finished 25th in the league in yards allowed and 24th against the run.

With the Redskins looking to clear cap room for another new batch of free agents, it was clear early in the offseason that Trotter wasn't in the club's '04 plans. They gave him permission in March to talk to other teams about a trade, but there were no serious takers.

In April, the club signed Trotter's much-cheaper replacement, 34-year-old ex-Giant Micheal Barrow. Then, they released Trotter, shaving $2.7 million off their '04 cap in the process.

Surprisingly, few teams have shown an interest in Trotter since his release. One NFL general manager who asked not to be identified, cited two likely reasons: 1) his slowness learning a new defensive system at his first two NFL stops in Philadelphia and Washington, and 2) an assumption that he wouldn't accept a backup role.

But here he is, back in Philadelphia, crossing back over a bridge that was thought to have been blown to smithereens 2 years ago. Club sources say he and Reid kissed and made up long ago. But like the March addition of Terrell Owens, this probably isn't a roster move Reid would have been willing to make if his team wasn't coming off a third straight conference championship game loss.