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The Philadelphia Eagles were able to steal away an excellent linebacker, Ernie Sims, from the Lions for a mere fifth-round pick.

A great veteran player on the young Eagles defense, something that the Eagles were looking to either acquire via trade or draft and they found a great pickup.

The trade went down between the Lions, Broncos, and of course the Eagles, making a nice three way trade that benefited everyone: The Broncos receiving a handful of picks, the Lions getting Tony Scheffler and the Eagles getting a veteran linebacker.

When I heard this trade went through, I was pumped that the Eagles defense finally has a solid OLB that can get the job done on every down. This was a move that would really solidify that Eagles defense and provide some support, primarily in rush defense.

Well, Ernie let us down.

Before coming to Philadelphia, Sims was averaging 105 tackles a season. Not a bad number for an OLB who was on a rather poor defense. I was pumped, as it was obvious that Stewart Bradley needed some help and this was the needed man.

During the season, I would be surprised if I even heard Sims' name called more than twice a game. He was dead silent on the Eagles defense and made absolutely no plays. Finishing the season with a weak and not acceptable 55 tackles and only two sacks.

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The Eagles defense struggles this season. The enter set of linebackers always seemed to be playing from behind the ball carrier and just not reading plays properly. It's clear that out of the group, Bradley was the most disappointing.

But he is the MLB of the team, and he is supposed to be the player making plays and commanding the defense.

What happened to Sims?

He just didn't show up in Philadelphia. I don't know if everyone has just forgotten about a player that should be rocking the outside part of the field, but he has just been a disappointment.

There must have been some sort of mistake and that I just kept missing his tackles, or I looked away when he made a play.

That was not the case. He just did not do anything.

If it is any indication of how poorly Sims did this season, Jamar Chaney, who only started the last few games of the season, had 42 tackles.

A back-up MLB actually was able to get within 13 tackles of a veteran OLB presence.

The Eagles have already started cleaning shop on defense. Sean McDermott is now gone and so is Rory Segrest, which is an excellent start for the Eagles. Now they need to move onto the actual position players and really evaluate who should stay and who should leave.

There are several good OLB coming out of this year's draft class and I expect the Eagles to fire the trigger on at least one.

There is no reason to be overpaying a player like Sims when he is just not performing at an acceptable level.

Philadelphia Eagles Offseason: Time to Throw Out Ernie Sims? | Bleacher Report

Didn't he play for the Lions too?

Yes, he did. Never really lived up to the hype of being a top ten draft pick (2006), but he did play on some pretty sucky Lions defenses. Had an average rookie season, which ended up being his best. After a pretty serious shoulder injury in '09, was traded to the Eagles. I hated seeing him end up in 2-14 Indianapolis after having to play for some pretty bad Lions teams, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I saw in that Philly article they claimed he was averaging 105 tackles a season? When was this? I don't remember him ever having that many tackles any of the years he played for Detroit. Tackles & assists combined, maybe. He's just not that good.

I think he's a gamble for the Saints. The change in environment, Spags and the atmosphere in New Orleans may do him some good and revive his career a bit, but he only averages something like 3-4 tackles a game and don't necessarily know if he'd be an improvement over what the Saints have now.

Kick the tires and watch the film. Then pull the trigger if Spags thinks that he can stop them from turning the corner.