With the news that Omar Gaither is likely out for the season with surgery scheduled to repair the Lisfranc sprain in his foot, head coach Andy Reid assessed the linebacker situation with the addition of Will Witherspoon.

"Will brings some experience to that position," Reid said. "He brings some experience to that position. He can play both the WILL and MIKE linebacker spots. We'll put him in there in the same position that Omar was in. Trot will continue to get some reps in there, and then we have (Joe) Mays also that's a backup there when needed."

Reid said Witherspoon will be able to start this Monday night against the Washington Redskins and he should be able to pick up the defense quickly.

"(Witherspoon) just came from St. Louis, so he's been running this defense," Reid said, because former Eagles' assistant coach Steve Spagnuolo is the head coach in St. Louis. "Are the some new things? Yeah, there are some new things, most of it is the pressure package that we have that's a little bit different than what Spags is running."

Reid also said Witherspoon will be able to call plays in the defensive huddle.

"He'll be able to do that," Reid said. "He'll have all the gameplan down. He's a sharp guy and familiar with the defense, so he'll be able to do that."

Mays was considered the starter at middle linebacker at one point during the preseason, and Reid was asked what led to his place at the bottom end of the depth chart.

"It's probably more of an experience thing than anything right now," Reid said. "Sometimes you take a step back and you can learn a little bit more and continue to progress forward in the future, so that's what we did there.

"Joe's a young guy, so he's got time here to keep working at tat spot and he'll continue to get better in time ... He's a battler. He's knows he's a young guy. He'll have a long career, he's just got to keep learning. He got great experience during training camp and that'll pay off for him down the road."

Reid was also asked about the tackling technique of cornerback Asante Samuel. Samuel has four interceptions this season, but has missed several tackles, including whiffing on Raiders' tight end Zach Miller on the 86-yard catch and run that produced the only touchdown of the game las Sunday.

"(Samuel)'s going to keep working at that and we'll keep working with him as coaches," Reid said. "He'll get better at that part of his game."

-- Posted by Bo Wulf, 2:09 p.m., October 22