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I'm not sure whether the Bills wanted the Eagles to take Holcomb or if the Eagles really wanted him... Frankly, it's kinda hard to figure out how he fits into this deal. My guess is that he still has to make the team.
Spikes, a multiple time pro bowler, will bring an immediate upgrade to the LB corps finally bringing a big physical presence that's known for shutting down the run. When he's been healthy, Spikes has been flat out one of the better linebackers in the game. When he's been healthy that is... He tore an achilles in 05 and missed most of the season and sat out four games last year with hamstring and other injuries. Apparently some have attributed his injury struggles last year to him coming back "too soon" He's 30 years old, which isn't all that bad... so it's likely that he should come back and hopefully productive.
Spikes has played middle linebacker, which is a position the Eagles have made very little secrets about upgrading. They went after a MIKE LB in Ryan Fowler and reportedly had discussions about Al Wilson. There are some rumors that Spikes could take the place of Dhani Jones at SAM and play next to Trotter... Either way, I'll be very interested to see what the Eagles have to say about how they plan on using him. Tom Heckert sort of implied that he could play anywhere... "Takeo Spikes is a proven playmaker in the National Football League," said general manager Tom Heckert. "He has the ability to play all three linebacking positions and we're happy to add him to our defense."
As it stands now, it looks like the Eagles took their first major step in fixing this run defense.
Update [2007-3-27 9:55:58 by BleedGreen]: "TKO" as he's known was on WIP this morning and said his "natural position" is the WILL... interesting. My guess is that he'll probably play SAM in the base defense and MIKE in the nickel. Unless Gocong has a great camp and turns into a starting SAM LB, I doubt Spikes will play the weakside.