Brian Dawkins a liability?

It's the question on quite a few Eagles fan's minds since our Monday night loss to the Cowboys. Is Brian Dawkins a liability? I asked this very question back in August. My answer was "No", and it still is, but not as emphatically. The biggest concerns that I have are his mental mistakes, and his speed.

In the preseason game at Pittsburgh Santono Holmes caught a pass at the line of scrimmage, and took it 20 yards for the touchdown. Brian Dawkins took a bad angle, and got burned. 3 or 4 years ago, he could have taken that same angle, but he would have been able to catch Holmes and tackle him. At the time, I thought that it was an isolated incident, and there was no body of work to substantiate the notion that he was done. Although, there isn't a huge body of work to support the claim, it grew during the game in Dallas.

Jason Witten got behind the defense twice against us, once in the 2nd quarter (42 yard completion), and again in the in the 4th (32 yard completion), setting the Cowboys up for the game winning score. Here's what he had to say about getting beat over the top.

"I don't like the fact that I gave up a couple of big balls down the field. I took a couple of bad angles on the football today. I went for the interception on one and the other one, I wasn't quite in position. That wasn't good enough. I hold myself to high standards and it wasn't good enough.'' -Brian Dawkins

It's a long season, and don't believe that Weapon-X should hang up his cleats right now. He can still produce. He was strong against the run, and he can still lay the smack down on unsuspecting receivers, but he can't rely on his speed to compensate for mental mistakes anymore. I wanted the Eagles to go after Miami's Kenny Phillips in the draft as Dawks eventual replacement. Do the Eagles look to next years draft? Maybe use Carolina's pick to do it?

For the record, I love Brian Dawkins, he will forever be an Eagle. I don't think that he's done, but maybe it's time to re-evaluate his role. I got quite a few responses about this. There are a lot of Quintin Demps supporters out there. Maybe he can get some more experience as a situational player?

GO BIRDS!!!!