The Bye Week and Trotter
The bye week is usually one of the most frustrating parts of the season for me because it leaves me with nothing to do on Sunday. However, this season it is different for me. The bye week is a sigh of relief. It is coming at possibly the most convenient time possible.
Going into the bye week the Eagles are 2-1, and ranked 9th in the power rankings by ESPN. While 9 is good, I feel like they are being underestimated right now. However, it could be seen as a fair assumption when taking into account their blowout by the Panthers. This bye week is important for a couple amount of reasons…mainly two. this will give the Eagles injured players time to recover. From the beginning of this week, the “walking wounded” would have two weeks until their next game. The list is long and hopefully that list will be shorter come two Sundays from now. Obviously it will be a huge upgrade with McNabb out on the field. Westbrook will have had time to rest that ankle up. The O-Line will get healthier, and Kevin Curtis hopefully will be ready to go at 100%.
After the injuries, the other important thing that the bye week will do is give Jeremiah Trotter a little extra time to get back into the swing of things. The coaches like how he is in good shape, but playing shape is different. This extra time will help a lot. I doubt that he will have trouble remembering the play book, but with new defensive coordinator (RIP JJ), Sean McDermott, Trotter will have to pick up on some new calls and the little things that have been changed. It should be interesting to see how he is used and just how much he will be on the field.
