Photo: David Michael Howarth

Practice has just ended and the Eagles’ players have crowded the locker room at the NovaCare Complex in various states of next steps. Time passes quickly in the National Football League – day to day, year to year, career to career. And this snapshot is no different: A quick shower, some lunch and then it’s off to meetings and the rest of a very full day.

Way back in the left side of the locker room is Jeremiah Trotter Jr., the team’s 5th-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft. He, like all of the team’s rookies, is housed in a temporary stall in the center of the room – just a chair and some hooks to hang his clothes is about the extent of his personal space. Trotter is, though, only a handful of feet away from where his father Jeremiah commanded the locker room for 7 seasons, helping the team reach Super Bowl 39 and, ultimately, earning his way to the franchise’s Hall of Fame as one of the team’s all-time great linebackers. “The Axeman,” as everyone knows.

“I’ve been in this locker room a long, long time,” Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. says. “I came here a lot as a kid. The building was part of my childhood, and in some ways a second home.”

Now it’s his real second home and not far away from his childhood home in South Jersey, the one where he grew up with his dad, his late mother, Tammi, his 2 brothers and his sister. Junior is sleeping in the bed he slept in as a kid through his high school days at St. Joe’s Prep up until he left to attend school and play collegiately at Clemson.

“It’s all the same and it feels great,” Trotter says. “Same bed, same trophies in my room. It brings me comfort knowing it’s there and I’m here, and this is my job. That’s the point here: This is my job. I don’t have any guarantee about anything. 

I understand what the league is about. I’ve known about the business for a long time through my father.” 

“I know that this is a grind, and I’m prepared for this challenge. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”

“My dad would always talk to me and say there is no pressure. ‘You’re your own player, your own man. You have your own journey.’”

For the first week or so after the NFL Draft, when the Eagles phoned to tell him he was the 155th player selected – perhaps you saw the video of Eagles Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie emotionally telling Jeremiah how much he loved his father and his mother, who passed away in February 2023 due to breast cancer – it almost felt surreal.

Trotter Jr.? An Eagle? Following in the footsteps of his legendary dad?

Around the Trotter household, in fact, dad would ask his son – as many do once college is finished and the job world begins – where he worked.

“Jeremiah, where do you work,” Dad would say.

“The Philadelphia Eagles,” son answered.

“I just did it over and over because I wanted to hear him say it,” Jeremiah Trotter Sr. says. “It makes me so happy that he’s in the NFL. I’m so proud of him. And to be an Eagle, an organization that I love and that means everything to me, I just kept crying. I’m so proud and excited about this.”

“A proud dad, that’s what he is,” Junior says. “I love him and he loves me, has always been there for me and with me. Just like my mom. It’s sad that she isn’t here physically to enjoy this, but I know she’s smiling down on me. She meant everything to me. A great mom. 

I feel her with me every day.”

The Eagles didn’t select Trotter for all the feel-good stories the move has generated. They wanted him because they saw a player at Clemson who has the physical traits to play linebacker in today’s NFL – the ability to run sideline to sideline in pass coverage, the strength and leverage to take on and shed blockers in the running game, the intelligence to diagnose pre-snap movement and articulate adjustments to his teammates.

“He has a skill set, and that’s why we drafted him,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman says. “He has a mentality. That’s why we drafted him. We’re looking forward to him being his own person and not having to walk in anyone’s footsteps but creating his own legacy.”

He isn’t his father. Jeremiah Trotter Sr. was a third-round pick by the Eagles in 1998 out of Stephen F. Austin State University, and he played downhill football all the way. A 254-pound linebacker, Trotter Sr. crashed the line of scrimmage and won by being more physical than everyone on the field. Junior is not the same kind of player at 229 pounds.

But living up to who his father was on the football field has never been an issue.

“My dad would always talk to me and say there is no pressure. ‘You’re your own player, your own man. You have your own journey.’ We’re different, as far as how we play the game,” Junior says. “And I’ve just got to go out there and be me, use the tools that God blessed me with and use them to the best of my ability and try to be the best player I can be as an individual. I don’t feel like there is any pressure to live up to his legacy or anything. I don’t feel like there is a weight on my back. I’m just trying to get to work and be the best I can be.”

Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is back home and playing in the NFL looking to create his own name with the Philadelphia Eagles. His friends have been respectful and have given him distance. He is immersed in the defensive playbook and doing everything he can to gain an edge and make the roster for the 2024 season – and help the Eagles win football games.

All business, Junior walks down the Pro Bowl hallway at the NovaCare Complex toward the cafeteria and sees his father’s picture on the wall and knows what it means.

“He was a great player, and he’s loved. I love him. He’s my father, the best father, and he’s supporting me as a proud papa helping me achieve my goals,” Trotter Jr. says. “We both know what’s going on here: The story is a great one, but for me it’s my career. It’s my dream. I’m doing everything I can to keep my head down, get better every day and play the best football I can play.”

“That’s the role I have here,” Trotter Jr. adds. “I’m one of the guys trying to be the best I can be every single day.”  

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Eagles Insider Dave Spadaro has covered every Eagles game since 1987 and is seen and heard throughout the year on television, radio and Eagles coverage everywhere. You can hear his Eagles Live Podcast on iTunes.