Man, that is some cold sh*t.

I’ll admit to being fairly shocked that the Eagles cut Trotter. I thought there was a chance he might lose his starting job, but cutting the guy whose return and resurgence in 2004 pushed the defense into the Super Bowl? The guy who so famously feuded and then made up with Coach Reid after the dark interregnum of Trotter’s Redskin years (ah, the wistful memories of the green #54 shirts with “Trotter” transformed into “Traitor”)?

Certainly very few of the local blathermonkeys saw this coming, with the possible exception of G. Cobb, who posted a very curious comment on his blog a week and change ago. Semi-hilariously, a number of blathermonkeys decided that Monday would be “Guess the roster/ doesn’t look like there are many hard choices for Andy Reid to make” day (see link below). Only Delaware Online seemed to be on the case at all, noting Trot’s absence from practice.

For the Birds, well, it’s a tough call. Sure, the organ-I-zation has never been shy about blowing older players out the airlock, but Trot isn’t actually that old (he’s younger than McNabb). This feels like it’s about a side/ speed tradeoff. That is, Trot was the only size that the Birds really had in the linebacking corps a year ago, so everyone was willing to deal with the fact that he couldn’t run to the sidelines or cover anyone. But they’ve beefed up with Gocong and Bradley, brought in Spikes (who’s looked very competent in camp, apparently), and Gaither has looked strong and fast from the moment he got on the field last season through this summer.

Sigh. As a fan, I’ll miss Trotter. He was a good Eagle. You can argue that the Birds lost the Super Bowl at least part because the Pats figured out how to defeat Trotter at halftime (they went to all the four-WR sets which forced him off the field and then ran at the Birds out of those sets throughout the second half). You can also argue that he was one of the biggest reasons the team got there in the first place.

Godspeed, Trot. Godspeed.

(We won’t bring up the part where he sided with TO against 5 in 2005; I really hope he doesn’t sign with the Giants.)

Link:
Eagles projected 53-man roster [Phillyburbs.com]
Trading Places [Delaware Online]