John Fox's Carolina Panthers drafted linebacker Will Witherspoon in the third round of 2002. He never made a Pro Bowl, but led the Panthers with 16 tackles in Super Bowl XXXVIII. He was named the MVP of the St. Louis Rams in 2007 before brief stints with the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans.
Apparently Fox liked him enough to want to bring him into camp this season, for the Denver Broncos. .
Regardless, Witherspoon made it back to St. Louis signing Thursday.
Via Jim Thomas of St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"They kind of reached out to Tom (Condon) a few weeks back and said, ‘Hey, we’re considering bringing in Will for camp and everything else. Is he interested?’ " Witherspoon said, referring to agent Tom Condon of CAA. "Of course, I was interested."
Condon, some of you may remember was the agent that took over for Elvis Dumervil after Dumervil fired his former agent.
The interest in a veteran middle linebacker around training camp has now become an annual thing for the Broncos apparently. Denver signed Keith Brooking in early August of 2012, Brooking ended up starting most of the season after Joe Mays was demoted.
The larger issue, which I am sure we will get into in the comments is that the Broncos have expressed nothing but confidence in their current middle linebackers Nate Irving and Steven Johnson. So what is with the Witherspoon flirtation?
Other currently available veteran middle linebackers include Bart Scott (whom the Broncos tried to trade Brandon Marshall to the New York Jets for during the Josh McDaniels era) and Keith Brooking.