At this point, Quintin Demps has no business as the starter.


I've stood by the fact that I don't believe Quintin Demps should be a starter, but that he may eventually turn into a starting-caliber player. However, Thursday's preseason game against the Jaguars has me thinking a bit differently.

Overall, Demps didn't play a terrible game. However, one particular play really sticks out from that game, and has me 100 percent convinced that Demps is not ready to start this year, and may never be the starter that the Eagles want and expect him to be.

Without going back and looking, I don't remember the exact situation of the play. From what I recall, the Jaguars were headed into the redzone from about the Eagles 25 yard line (or so). David Garrard used the play-fake to freeze the linebackers and hit Marcedes Lewis about ten yards down the field on what I believe was just an out pattern.

Demps comes flying into the screen, lunges at Lewis and simply bounces off of him. That doesn't sound so bad, but it gets a whole lot worse when you see that he bounces off because at no point does he extend his arms to wrap Lewis up, or even just simply lower his shoulder into him as Dawk would do from time to time.

Then I thought back to the NFC Championship game when he just gave a slight shoulder check to Tim Hightower on the goal line and I realized then that Demps is afraid of contact. Now I don't mean that he's going to turn and run away, but when push comes to shove, he doesn't want to lay his body on the line to make that tackle.

(He will, however, take a shot at a quarterback who's not looking and who threw the ball several seconds before he got there. It's cheap, and it's cowardly. However, it seems like it's the only time he'll hit somebody.)

As a fan, as a former player, as a coach, and as a man, it's absolutely unthinkable that this kid has made it all the way to the ranks of being a starter in the NFL when he obviously does not like contact. What exactly are the Eagles thinking putting him out there on the field?

Not only does it put the team at risk to be playing a kid that won't hit anybody, but it puts him at risk as well. The guys who are afraid of contact are the ones who get injured the most often. They don't know how to give a hit, and they don't know how to receive a hit, which of course leads to things like broken collarbones (i.e. Roy Williams) and other injuries of the like.

Now, this would not be a big deal if he were a corner, a wide receiver, or even a quarterback. I think it's terrible that such players make up the NFL today, but it's something that has become the norm. However, if you want to play free safety, you have better have the reckless abandon of a Banshee warrior.

Dawkins had, and has, that. It's what made, and makes, him a great safety, and a great overall player. Demps, on the other hand, apparently learned nothing under his time with Dawkins the way that Quintin Mikell did. You can see Dawkins in the way that Mikell plays because he took that same type of mentality. Demps is just another finesse kid that the Eagles don't need.

What's even more maddening is that they have a guy in Sean Jones sitting on the bench who would gladly sacrifice his body to take someone else's head off just for the sheer joy of hearing the pop. That's a football player, that's what a safety must be willing to do.

If Demps wants any kind of career in the NFL, he better start learning how to play in man coverage against a receiver, because cornerback is the only position on defense where it's acceptable (to a degree) to not want contact. Hell, Deion Sanders had about four or five tackles over his entire career, yet he's remembered as one of the best ever.

Macho Harris isn't afraid to hit, start him. Sean Jones isn't afraid to hit, start him. Quintin Demps will avoid contact if at all possible, and quite frankly he's not someone I want stepping into the shoes of Brian "Weapon X" Dawkins. Jones or Harris might suplex somebody, and at this point I'd be surprised if Demps would be man enough to give them a friendly hug.

Ride the pine, son. This is the NFL.