Lito Sheppard Update.

So now it seems that there is not much truth to the Lito Sheppard trade rumors, as of right now. But come on, there has to be some truth to what is going around. Derrick Gunn from Comcast Sports Net reported at 6:30 pm last night, that he talked to Lito to see if he knew what was going on and Lito said he knew nothing about this, and that he thought Derrick Gunn was trying to pull a joke on him. Then the Eagles release a statement saying that the all reports of Lito being traded are false. Now its really not so far fetched that Lito could be traded in the near future. It is now coming out that Lito is not happy with his contract and would like to redo his current contract. Lito feels he is a top 5 Corner and deserves to paid like one. Lito also told DGunn that he felt he had outperformed his current contract and was going to see if the Eagles would redo his contract or he was going to push to be traded. So basically, he knows how the Eagles work and most likely he will not get a new contract, and someone in his camp leaked this to ESPN and the NFL Network. No offense to Lito, but he is not a top 5 Cornerback, and he might not be a top 10 at this point. It is his own fault that he is where he is. The Eagles do a great job of locking up young players early, and then hope that they outperform their contracts. Thats what they do, sometimes it works, sometimes it doen't. In this case I think that they both got a good deal. When Lito signed his contract in 2004 he was given a up front bonus of $8.7M. His salary for 2004 was $9.2M. The Eagles gave him a lot of money up front then gave him less for the next 4 seasons, and loaded up the end of his contract. 2005 - $532,000, 2006 - $615,000, 2007 - $1.5M, 2008 - $2M, 2009 - $3M, 2010 - $3.7M, 2011 - $4.25M. Basically the Eagles threw Lito $9.2M when he was unproven, which is a risk, and Lito, knowing that nothing is guaranteed and he could get injured and have his career be over at anytime, took the deal. They both took a risk and the Eagles ended up winning in the deal. Not the Eagles fault. Now should they redo Lito's deal. Absoulutly not. Lito saw what Nate Clements got last year and sees what Asante Samuel is going to get this year and feels he is worth what they got. If I'm the Eagles and Lito tells me he wants a Nate Clements type deal or trade me. I'm on the phone with the Bengals. The Bengals have struggled at the Defensive Back position for the last ten years. I would offer them Lito Sheppard for Chad Johnson straight up. Then I would go after Asante Samuel or Marcus Trufant, both are better than Sheppard. I like Lito. He just takes to many chances and is always injured. If Lito wants out, I give him his wish.

Derrick Gunn Report: http://philadelphia.comcastsportsnet.com/view_content_0p.asp?ID=62496