Sitting in the concrete bleachers of the Philadelphia Eagles' incredibly well-appointed training complex late in preseason, with the local media dogging him about adding a veteran to a depleted defensive line unit, team president Joe Banner suggested to a visitor that he preferred to see if any of the club's youngsters made a quantum leap before he reached for the panic button.
Three months later the button remains untouched, largely because of tackle Darwin Walker, a third-year veteran who stepped up when Hollis Thomas went down and who now figures to draw legitimate Pro Bowl consideration.
|  |
| Walker has been a force this year for the Eagles. |
Every season, there are young players who get onto the field because of an injury to a starter, and who take advantage of the opportunity to establish themselves as more than merely role players. In the case of Walker, whom Eagles coaches had identified as a player in quiet ascendance, there may be no better example in 2002 of a youngster who turned someone's misfortune into a fortune for himself.
With the run-stuffing Thomas sidelined by a foot injury, Walker has played well as a two-way performer, providing a pass-rush dimension that is not possessed by the man he replaced. Walker ranks second on the team now in sacks, with 5½, and posted a five-game stretch earlier in the season where he had at least a partial sack in every contest.
His reward: A six-year contract extension, worth more than $11 million, and including a $4 million signing bonus.
"I always felt like, if I got the chance to play (regularly), I could contribute in a pretty big way," said Walker, a former University of Tennessee standout the Eagles claimed on waivers in 2000 and nurtured nicely. "You don't ever want to see a teammate get hurt. But when the door opens up, you'd better be ready to step through it, and I was."
Walker isn't the only stand-in player this year to perform brilliantly, isn't even the most notable, in fact.
It would be difficult to top the performance of St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger, who salvaged the St. Louis season with a five-game winning streak in which he established NFL passing records for a player in the first five starts of his career. And, of course, before last Sunday's injury, Pittsburgh quarterback Tommy Maddox was authoring an unlikely comeback saga.
Here is a thumbnail look at five other players who moved into starting lineups this season because of injury, who have performed well, and have helped to keep their clubs in playoff contention:
RB Amos Zereoue (Pittsburgh): Some skeptics still doubt he has the size and physical endurance to handle a 20-carry workload, but the squat, quick back leads the Steelers in rushing and has bailed out the team's running attack for a second straight season. Maybe the fourth-year veteran really is a lot more than just a change-of-pace to Jerome Bettis.
QB Chad Pennington (New York Jets): He entered the season as the only first-round quarterback in 25 seasons to not start at least one game during his first two years in the league. Boy, how that has changed, with the onetime Marshall star pulling the Jets back into playoff contention and leaving little doubt he is the franchise's quarterback for the long-term. New York has won four of five games, Pennington has completed 71 percent of his attempts, and is now starting to challenge opposition secondaries.
SS Marques Anderson (Green Bay): A third-round steal from UCLA, he can cite passages from Chaucer, but Anderson apparently reads the eyes of opposition quarterbacks even better than he does The Canterbury Tales. He took over when the Packers suffered a rash of injuries in the secondary, kept the No. 1 job even when Antuan Edwards was healthy again, and has four interceptions now.
WLB Jeff Ulbrich (San Francisco): A starter in 14 games a year ago, he lost his spot in camp, then regained it when Jamie Winborn was inured early in the season. The 49ers coaches love Winborn, but he'll have a difficult time bumping Ulbrich to the bench when he returns in about two weeks. A third-year veteran, Ulbrich has 26 tackles and a sack and San Francisco two weeks ago rewarded him with a contract extension.
DE Carlos Hall (Tennessee): The rookie seventh-rounder has slowed since his debut, a season-opener in which he notched three sacks, replacing injured Jevon Kearse. But the former Arkansas defender has been steady, hasn't been out of position many times, and has five sacks in seven starts. There is a suspicion that Hall might be more productive as a situational player, where his strength won't be so easily eroded, but he has done a nice job in helping to keep the surprising Titans in the playoff hunt.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
