Eagles' Selection Of Legacy LB Isn't About Sentimentality

There is nostalgia to the Eagles' selection of Jeremiah Trotter Jr. but the pick wasn't about sentimentality.

Oct 7, 2023; Clemson, South Carolina, USA; Clemson linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. (54) pressures / Ken Ruinard-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA - The Axe Man, once the biggest bully on the football field when he roamed the middle of the field for the Philadelphia Eagles, showed his softer side in West Virginia on Sunday.

The Trotter family was in Morgantown to take in the spring game at West Virginia University where Josiah Trotter is set to make his mark in the 2024 college football season.

Jeremiah Trotter Jr., meanwhile, was still waiting for his phone call during the 2024 NFL Draft. The star linebacker from Clemson was thought to be a potential Day 2 selection and things were into Round 5 on Saturday when a familiar number popped up on the cellphone.

The Hollywood ending wasn't preordained but perhaps fate was.

Trotter Jr. was sitting in his dad's truck and Howie Roseman was on the line. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. was going to get No. 54 for the Philadelphia Eagles just like his four-time Pro Bowl father.

The Eagles were trading up to No. 155 overall to land the younger Trotter, 26 years after taking Jeremiah Trotter Sr. in the third round out of Stephen F. Austin in 1998.

“My dad shed some tears,” Trotter Jr. said. “My uncles and my aunt gave me hugs and everything. Just super happy, super grateful for the opportunity. So it was definitely an emotional moment.”

It was also an emotional moment for Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, who got the phone after Roseman broke the news and head coach Nick Sirianni welcomed Trotter Jr. to the current Eagles. Lurie's voice began to shake as he reminisced about first meeting Trotter Jr. as a small child when his dad was one of Philadelphia's biggest stars. Lurie also told Trotter Jr. how much he loved his mother Tammi, who lost a difficult battle with cancer in February of 2023.

Trotter Jr. had spent Friday at home in South Jersey hoping to hear his name called from Detroit in Rounds 2 or 3. By Saturday he decided to accompany his father to West Virginia to support his brother when things finally broke his way.

The son of the powerful Axe Man dismissed the idea of pressure to live up to that legacy.

“My dad would always talk to me and said, ‘Hey, there isn’t no pressure,’” the younger Trotter said. “‘You’re your own player. Your own man. You have your own jersey. We’re different, as far as how we play the game.’ I’ve just got to go out there and be me, use the tools that God blessed me with and try to just use them to the best of my ability and try to be the player I can be as an individual.”

Players like Trotter Sr. don't exist any longer in the modern NFL spread and shred environment. At 6-foot and 228 pounds, Trotter Jr is over 30 pounds lighter than his dad was in a different era and many still question whether the son is capable of holding up in coverage.

"I'd probably say definitely the size and just how our body types are and how we play the game," Trotter Jr. said when asked about the differences between him and his father. "He played the game where he's more like trying to -- up in it the gap, spiking gaps, running, getting downhill, and just blowing up lineman. In today's game, I'm more of a run around, run sideline to sideline.

"I got to be able to play out in space. So, I feel like that's the biggest part of our games that are different and the style of play that we have."

Roseman, meanwhile, wanted it known that while there is nostalgia to the Trotter Jr. selection, the pick wasn't about sentimentality.

"I think, one, you have to stick to your board. We can't make up a grade on any player just because we like them," the GM said. "I make a joke a lot of times. You know, the best person I know in the world is my wife, and I don't want her playing linebacker for us either."

If the Eagles didn't believe Trotter Jr. could play, they wouldn't haveselectedd him.

"I think for us, at the end of the day, you have to have a certain skill set to play at any position in the National Football League," Roseman said. "So we're looking for a skill set, and we're drafting players based on a skill set.

"As much as you like those stories, and it's a great story without the ending, you know. We just started that story, but it's got to be skill set, and he has a skill set, and that's why we drafted him. He has a mentality. That's why we drafted him. We're looking forward to him being his own person and not having to walk in anyone's footsteps, but creating his own legacy."

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