Eagles' McCoy still talks to Westbrook

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Eagles running back LeSean McCoy wasn't a teammate of Brian Westbrook's for long, but that doesn't mean the two aren't close.

On Thursday, at his press conference in the wake of his new five-year deal, McCoy said he has kept in touch with Westbrook.

For sure," McCoy said. "Not only about contracts, but me and Brian talk and text all the time. As we got closer to the deal, we talked quite a bit about the contracts. The biggest thing he told me was to not let it stress me out too much, and he felt like the organization here is great and will take care of me.

"He always said the good thing about it is you can go up and talk to Howie and Andy and Mr. Lurie, and that plays a big role. A lot of times, you just go through your agent to see whats going on, and at the same time, I can talk to Howie and Id go up to coach Reids office and we talked about certain things.

"That was the biggest thing with Brian, that we played in an organization where you could actually go up and speak to him and work things out.

McCoy and Westbrook were teammates when McCoy was just a rookie in the league after being drafted in the second round. Westbrook started seven games that season and had 61 attempts, while McCoy started four games and had 155 attempts.

In 2010, the Eagles released Westbrook and McCoy became the primary back. In 2011, McCoy became a star. But as McCoy began to impress, the comparisons were there; how did he stack up against Westbrook?

Westbrook was a two-time Pro Bowler and an All Pro once. McCoy made his first Pro Bowl last season and was an All Pro.

McCoy ran for 1,309 yards and 17 TDs last year. Westbrook ran for 1,333 yards in 2007 but had just seven rushing TDs. In fact, Westbrook had just two 1,000-yard seasons. McCoy has done that in his last two seasons.

Where Westbrook really became a threat was in the receiving game. He had at least 54 catches for five seasons in a row with at least 402 yards receiving. After having 78 catches in 2010, McCoy had 48 in 2011.

E-mail Dave Zangaro at dzangaro@comcastsportsnet.com

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