Eagles Training Camp: Weaver, Mikell Discuss Leadership

Over the past two years the Eagles have shed a number of veteran players, all of which pretty much made up the leadership of the team. Brian Dawkins, Brian Westbrook, Sheldon Brown, and of course Donovan McNabb.

So the obvious question is… who will step up to lead now? Two emerging leaders were asked this very question after practice.

Quintin Mikell

“Even when Dawkins was here, obviously he was more on the forefront but we always had a lead by committee type thing and that’s what it is now, we have myself, [LB] Stew[art] [Bradley], [LB] Ernie [Sims], we have a lot of guys that are respected on this team and around the league and that’s really all you need, so in terms of leadership really it’s about what your putting on the field and if people are going to follow that, and we have guys that can do it.”

Leonard Weaver

“No. I don’t think so because if you think about it, before I was here they had young guys and they still went to the playoffs, they still had playoff runs. I just think what Andy Reid has done, he develops a program where if young guys come in, they’re in and they’re going to be in a position where they can succeed. So, I think that’s what he does a good job of because we have young guys who have playoff experience from last year, who came in, and [WR] Jeremy Maclin is one of them, [WR] DeSean Jackson. So, we have guys out here who are young guys, but they’re veteran leaders.”