EAGLES NEWS

The Eagles made a somewhat surprising move today, releasing veteran linebacker Takeo Spikes. Spikes was second on the team last season with 139 tackles. Still, the Eagles didn't think he was good enough to keep. Why? well the obvious reason is to free up some more cap room, as he would have been owed about $5 million, plus if you're going to release someone, now is the time to do it, when they can still become a free agent and sign on with someone else. Anyway, cap room is not only reason they released him. Apparently they just didn't feel he played up to par last season. It's not hard to understand why. When he was a pro bowl linebacker with the Bengals back in 2003-2004, he consistently racked up interceptions and sacks. Last season, he recorded only one sack and failed to haul in an interception. Also the Eagles are clearly looking to bring together as many playmakers as possible on the team this season, so one sack and zero interceptions just wasn't go to cut it. Thus, they think the youngsters Stewart Bradley and Akeem Jordan are playmakers enough to cut it. Now if I hadn't seen Stewart play late season with my own eyes, I might be inclined to disagree with them, but I saw Stewart and he looked pretty good, so this might to turn out to be a pretty smart move in the end.