JOE WALKER was everything you want in a salary-cap era backup. Not only was he proving to be a pretty good player, but he also came cheap. He was a seventh-round rookie with a $465,034 cap number this season.
But Walker tore the ACL in his left knee last Thursday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and an Eagles linebacker unit that already had very little depth didn't even have that.
And that's how the Eagles found themselves having to give a one-year, $3 million contract with $1.75 million in guaranteed money to 31-year-old middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch.
Tulloch is yet another member of the I-used-to-play-for-Jim-Schwartz club.