Jeremiah Trotter Jr. Has Earned a Start. Now the Eagles Have to Answer For It.
Philadelphia's backup linebacker is the one making the argument now.
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. has earned his chance to start. That reads like a small sentence. It isn't. A backup earning a starting job isn't a request for a few extra snaps. It's a request to reshuffle the linebacker rotation, and every reshuffle means somebody currently on the field comes off it.
The reporting doesn't name who. That's the part the staff actually has to solve, and it's the part nobody in Philadelphia seems eager to say out loud. Linebacker reps have been spread thin across the group, which is exactly the condition that produces a story like this one. When a team defends the middle of the field by committee, the committee is the problem.
The timing isn't random either. Philadelphia's early-season film drew real scrutiny on defense, with the second level taking the brunt of it. That's when benches get longer looks. Not out of sentiment, and not because a coaching staff suddenly wants to develop somebody. Because the guys in front haven't made the decision easy, and a coordinator under pressure goes looking for the player who will.
Here's what I think the Eagles are weighing, and it's the only thing that matters here: can Trotter hold up in coverage on passing downs? Run thumping is the easy part. Every linebacker who gets this conversation started can thump. The reason rotational linebackers stay rotational is that offenses isolate them in space, and coaches remember the last time it happened.
For IDP managers, this is a wire check. A starting linebacker in Philadelphia is a starting linebacker, and starting linebackers are the position in IDP formats. That's true. If he's on your waiver wire and your league starts linebackers, flag him before the snap counts confirm it. If your league doesn't, this story has nothing for you, and I'd rather tell you that than pretend otherwise.
My read: Trotter gets a genuine bump in snaps before midseason, because the group ahead of him hasn't earned the right to keep him off the field. What would prove me wrong is if he gets the run and then disappears on obvious passing downs. That would tell you the staff likes the idea of him more than it trusts him, and this conversation ends the same way it started.
