Westbrook To Play This Sunday At San Diego

One of the big questions coming into the San Diego game was whether or not Brian Westbrook will be able to plahy or not. It looks like the we have an answer and that answer is yes. From ESPN.com

Westbrook, who also has been bothered by a sore ankle, practiced twice this week. He deemed himself ready to go Friday before the team left for its flight to California.

"I'm feeling a lot better," Westbrook said. "I'm ready to go."

Westbrook, already limited much of this season with knee and ankle injuries, suffered the concussion when he took a knee to the head in the Eagles' Oct. 26 win over the Washington Redskins.

Westbrook sat out one game and practiced last week before Philadelphia's game against Dallas, but ended up sitting out because of a headache. Reid said there should not be a similar problem this week.

In the five games Westbrook has played this season, he has split time in the backfield with rookie running back LeSean McCoy, the team's second-round draft pick from Pitt. For the season, Westbrook has carried the ball 41 times for 197 yards, an average of 4.8 yards per carry, and has scored one touchdown. His longest run was 25 yards against Oakland. He has also caught 17 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown.

Asked what Westbrook was listed for Sunday's game, Eagles coach Andy Reid said, "Playing."

While he is officially listed as probable, by the looks of things there is no way he's not playing.

Despite that, though, I have mixed feelings about Westbrook. For one, I think he is the most overrated player on the Eagles. ESPN, Fox, and CBS like to talk about how critical he is to this team, and frankly, now that Shady McCoy is here, I don't see it. He is explosive on the screen pass (although if executed right, very many a running back can be explosive on the screen) and he is a really good blocker, which frankly, is the only skill that Westbrook has that Shady does not have. It also helps Shady's cause that I see him being an effective 30-carry a game back whereas with Westbrook, if he gets 15 carries in the game, chances are he'll go down with an injury his 16th. Now if Andy Reid really wants to get creative with the run game, what he can do is a New York Giants circa 2008 with an Earth, Wind, and Fire combination with Weaver, Westbrook, and Shady, but a 3-headed monster requires that Andy Reid stick with at minimum a balanced attack and we all know Reid's history with that. Shady would get most of the workload, Westbrook can get 5 carries to the outside and a bunch of screen passes, and Church Van Weaver can get the yards up the middle on 2nd and short and 3rd and short. This is the first time in his entire tenure at the Eagles that Andy Reid had a competent running full back who can get the yards up the middle, and from the way he has given him the ball in the past few games, that is something that Reid likes a lot.