Jeremiah Trotter Jr.

Eagles Trade Up To No. 155, Draft LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr.

April 27th, 2024 at 2:04pm CST by Adam La Rose

The Eagles have swapped places with the Colts in the fifth round. Philadelphia has acquired No. 155 from Indianapolis, sending Nos. 164 and 201 in exchange.

With that newly added selection, the Eagles have drafted Clemson linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. Trotter’s father was selected by Philadelphia in 1998, and he spent eight years with the team. Trotter Sr. earned four Pro Bowl invites and a pair of All-Pro nods during his tenure there, and his son will aim to likewise have a successful time with the Eagles.

Trotter spent his three-year college career at Clemson, serving as starter over the past two seasons. As a sophomore, he filled the statsheet with 92 tackles (including 13.5 for loss), 6.5 sacks, eight pass deflections and a pair of interceptions. Those totals earned him a number of accolades, including a place on the All-American second team.

In 2023, Trotter’s output remained similar to that of the previous campaign, and he earned first-team All-ACC honors. As a 21-year-old junior, his age and production likely gives him some of the highest upside amongst linebackers in the 2024 class. He will be able to compete for playing time as at least a depth contributor and special teams mainstay in Philadelphia.

The Eagles have made a number of changes at the linebacker spot this offseason, bringing in Devin White and Zack Baun. 2022 third-rounder Nakobe Dean is also in line to assume a larger workload this year. Trotter will thus have plenty of competition for defensive snaps as a rookie, but he is now positioned to attempt to follow in his father’s footsteps at the NFL level.

Cowboys To Move Markquese Bell Back To Safety

April 14th, 2024 at 11:07am CST by Rory Parks

A collegiate safety, Markquese Bell joined the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2022 and played in just 22 defensive snaps in his rookie season. In 2023, he was moved to linebacker and given a much larger workload, and he acquitted himself rather nicely.

In 17 games (eight starts) last year, Bell racked up 94 total tackles to go along with four passes defensed and two forced fumbles. He also fared well in the eyes of the advanced metrics, with Pro Football Focus assigning him a 76.8 overall grade that ranked 18th out of 74 qualified players. His 83.5 coverage grade, perhaps a function of his safety background, was the fifth-highest mark among his LB peers.

Former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn left Dallas to become the Commanders’ head coach this offseason, and his replacement, Mike Zimmer, will be moving Bell back to his natural safety position, as David Moore of the Dallas Morning News confirms. Zimmer prefers to have good size at the linebacker spots, and Bell — who is listed at 205 pounds — does not offer that. Plus, despite his PFF rankings, Bell’s lack of size and lack of experience as an LB were exposed at times last season, including the Cowboys’ stunning playoff ouster at the hands of the Packers.

Dallas has already reunited Zimmer with former Vikings charge Eric Kendricks, who will operate alongside Damone Clark and DeMarvion Overshown. Clark started all 17 games for Dallas in 2023 and compiled 109 tackles, though the 2022 fifth-rounder sometimes struggled with the increased responsibilities. Overshown, a 2023 third-rounder, had a promising camp and was expected to take on a meaningful role as a rookie, but a preseason ACL tear kept him off the field for the entirety of the campaign.

Despite Kendricks’ veteran presence and the upside of Clark and Overshown, Moore still believes that the linebacker unit is the weak link of the Dallas defense. The fact that the Cowboys are moving Bell out of that group is further indication that they plan to select an LB in the early stages of the upcoming draft. We recently heard that the club does not plan to use its first-round choice on the position, but in Moore’s estimation, a Day 2 selection would be more than defensible.

The team scheduled “30” visits with Michigan’s Junior Colson and Texas A&M’s Edgerrin Cooper, and Moore names Ohio State’s Tommy Eichenberg and Clemson’s Jeremiah Trotter Jr. as other potential targets. Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, meanwhile, hears that the Cowboys “really like” NC State prospect Payton Wilson (subscription required).

Dallas has starting safeties Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson on lucrative multi-year pacts; Hooker’s deal runs through 2026, while Wilson is under club control through 2025. Therefore, Bell may not be a starting safety, but given his relative success last season, Zimmer should find a way to get him on the field often.

Clemson LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr. Declares For Draft

December 1st, 2023 at 10:06pm CST by Ely Allen

One of two Clemson linebackers expected to be among the top linebacker prospects of the 2024 NFL Draft, and one of three Clemson defenders expected to be taken in the first two days, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. announced on his Instagram this week that he would be forgoing his remaining years of eligibility in order to pursue his NFL dreams. Trotter’s father was an All-Pro NFL linebacker who played from 1998-2009, spending eight of those years with the Eagles.

Unlike his father, the junior Trotter came into college as a highly-touted recruit ranked in the Top 100. Growing up in the city of his father’s team, Trotter came out of St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia, committing to Clemson as a junior in high school before joining the Tigers as an early enrollee in January 2021. Despite coming in early, Trotter failed to crack the lineup as a freshman, stuck on the depth chart behind seniors James Skalski and Baylon Spector and future third-round pick Trenton Simpson.

Trotter took the reins as a sophomore and led the team in tackles each of the past two seasons, even with Simpson still on the roster last year. Trotter was especially disruptive. In 2022 and 2023, Trotter led the Tigers in tackles for loss (28.5 combined), and despite being an off-ball linebacker, he led the team in sacks both years, as well, with a combined 12.0.

Trotter hasn’t only had a nose for the tackler, he’s done well to sniff out the ball in the air, as well. In his two years as a starter, he posted identical marks with five passes defensed and two interceptions in each year. In both seasons, he returned one of those two interceptions for a touchdown. He also forced three fumbles over that time. Pro Football Focus (subscription required) ranks Trotter’s performance this season as college football’s 13th-best for a linebacker.

In the past two years, only three off-ball linebackers have been drafted in the first round and only one more in the second round. Dane Brugler of The Athletic ranked Trotter as one of the top five underclassmen linebackers coming into the season. A strong junior year solidified that status as Mel Kiper’s most recent ESPN Big Board lists Trotter as the second-best off-ball linebacker in the draft behind Texas A&M’s Edgerrin Cooper, a redshirt junior who has yet to declare.

With the expectation that the same patterns will hold from previous years, Trotter may not expect to join teammate Nate Wiggins in the first round, but Trotter should still expect to hear his name called during the first two days of the draft. Even if the second round comes and goes and he remains on the board, both of the past two years showed a run of linebackers in the third round that should solidify his status as a Day 2 pick.