This was already posted, so I give credit to the original post, but this was meant to go more in-depth.

In a somewhat surprising announcement today, the Eagles officially named Omar Gaither as the starting Middle Linebacker. This job is guaranteed to Gaither for the remainder of the week in practice, and depending on how he performs in Thursday’s preseason finale, he could either stay at the position for the regular season as well, or move back to his reserve OLB spot.  

When starter Stewart Bradley suffered a season-ending ACL tear in Training Camp, 2nd-year man Joe Mays was unexpectedly handed the 1st-team duties, and considering his fine 2008 preseason and decent Camp, it appeared Mays was on track to earning the starting job for ‘09. However, while manning the middle of the defense in this year’s preseason, Mays looked less than fabulous, and often appeared confused while attempting to cover the passing game. Rookies Moise Fokou and Charleston Hughes, free agent addition Matt Wilhelm, and Gaither (pictured) were all competitors with Mays, but despite Joe’s struggles, the starting MLB job didn’t seem to be going to anyone else, especially after Gaither sustained a knee injury in practice.

But apparently the previous experience of Omar and a recent increase of good performance in practice was enough to make the team look in his direction. Again, the job is not his for certain yet, but there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be starting in Week 1. In support of that, take a look at Gaither’s career achievements and statistics compared to his primary competition:

Gaither

2006: 16 games played, 5 games started (OLB), 62 tackles, 1 INT, 1 sack

2007: 16 games played, 16 games started (MLB, OLB), 102 tackles, 1 INT

2008: 16 games played, 10 games started (OLB), 59 tackles, 2.5 sacks

Mays

2008: 2 games played, 0 games started (MLB), no statistics recorded

By looking at these numbers, Gaither should absolutely be the starter. But in respect to Mays, the kid (I guess I should not use that word ‘kid’ as a reference considering he’s got 250 pounds of bulging muscle) is only entering his second season, and a year spent behind 5 other LBs will not help your stats. So, for now, we’ll leave it at: Gaither is the starter, and the likely starter for 2009, but don’t count out the young player in Joe Mays.

Picture source: http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/004Q9Flg7g1NB/340x.jpg