With the Phillies on a three-day hiatus, and training camp only two weeks away, we're rolling out some Eagles coverage to help pass the time.
Right now, the mantra on the Eagles from many fans is something along the lines of, "They could go 10-6, or they could go 6-10." Fair enough, and probably pretty accurate, too... although it's not exactly an extreme prediction either. Nonetheless, the question then becomes what, or more importantly, who are the key players that will determine whether this will be a positive campaign or not?
I can't think of one player more important to the success or failure of the 2010 Eagles than Stewart Bradley.
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Obviously you can always make the case the quarterback is the most important man on the field, especially when he is an almost complete unknown like Kevin Kolb. So much of his success is dependent on the guys protecting him though, and the ability of the players to whom he's throwing the ball. In his first season, he isn't necessarily going to be asked to take over games.
Stewart Bradley, on the other hand, proved to be indispensable last season. For one thing, they were completely unable to replace him. According to Pro Football Focus, six players took at least 40 snaps at middle linebacker for the Birds in '09, none of them with any great amount of success. Only Omar Gaither is even reasonably fit for the job having started an entire season there in 2007, but he's merely a capable reserve, and that's only if he's recovered from a Lisfranc sprain.
The problems in the middle reverberated throughout the defense. The linebackers were generally a mess, with the outsiders no longer reaping the benefits of opposing ball carriers searching for space along the edges. The run defense appeared to weaken at the point of attack without somebody to clean up after Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley. The burden from these issues fell in part to the secondary, who eventually become responsible for the mistakes made in the front seven.
If Bradley is healthy and returns to the form he showed in '08, it will go a long way toward improving the entire unit. Better play in the middle will bring stability to the rest of the linebacking corps, strengthen the play of the interior linemen, and allow the defensive backs to focus on their assignments. Which player or players are going to have a bigger impact than that?