Missing Minicamp: Eagles Linebackers

In a typical NFL calendar year, you can always argue over the importance of minicamps, especially when it comes to veteran players.

What can’t be argued is that the practice sessions give you a peek behind the curtain and offer at least a skeleton-like outlook of how training camp will begin, as well as how the coaches are thinking about what they might have on their 90-man rosters.

Perhaps no one has more decisions to make than Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and linebackers coach Ken Flajole when it comes to the team’s linebackers.

For the second straight year, a veteran three-down foundational piece is gone after Nigel Bradham was released and Kamu Grugier-Hill was also allowed to walk via free agency after an injury-plagued season in which he and the organization went through some strange communication issues that went beyond KGH’s obfuscation of a concussion.

The year prior, meanwhile, the talented but injury-prone Jordan Hicks was allowed to leave.

That means a host of unproven commodities to fight for playing time.

Nate Gerry, who took advantage of Grugier-Hill’s difficult season, which also included a sprained MCL early and a painful back injury, to become the No. 2 man behind Bradham in 2019, played a career-high 61 percent of the defensive snaps last season.

Gerry figures to be the three-down LB in 2020, quite the leap for the former Nebraska safety who didn’t even make the team coming out of training camp as a rookie fifth-round pick in 2017.

Things started slowly for Gerry with the practice squad followed by promotion to be a core member of Dave Fipp’s special-teams units in 2017-18 while biding his time at LB, although Flajole quickly noticed the football IQ and an understanding of the defense.

Moreover, Gerry’s pedigree on the back end with the Cornhuskers gave him a leg up when it came to understanding coverages and what’s expected with the communication part of things between the second and third levels.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is what you would think of a pumped-up safety playing LB, the inability to shed blocks and tackle at the point of attack on a consistent basis.

The second three-down LB, who would likely leave the field in dime situations, is penciled in as T.J. Edwards, the 2019 undrafted free agent out of Wisconsin who is as close to a traditional LB as the Eagles have. In the 4-3 base, it’s Duke Riley, a former third-round pick in Atlanta who was traded for last season, trying to hold off speedy free-agent pickup Jatavis Brown and former CFL star Alex Singleton.

Rookie Davion Taylor, a very athletic but raw third-round developmental pick, and Shaun Bradley, the South Jersey native and former Temple star who was taken in the sixth round, are also thrown into the stew of uncertainty. Even undrafted rookie Dante Olson, a productive but less trait-oriented prospect from Montana has the opportunity to open some eyes.

While the idea of the NFL being the ultimate meritocracy is always a bit overblown when it comes to the 2020 Eagles linebackers that sentiment is really in play.

You can talk about Gerry and Edwards having a leg up and that will be the case when and if the Eagles begin training camp on July 28, but that’s not exactly Derrick Brooks lining up next to Mike Singletary.

The competition at LB figures to be legitimate if only because no one has the resume to demand otherwise.

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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