All off-season it seemed as though the Eagles sole focus was on defense. Today, they took care of the player who best represents their offense; Brian Westbrook. Westbrook and the Eagles agreed to a new deal Friday hours before their first pre-season game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Under his new deal, B-West will get $21 million over three years with $18 million guaranteed. Incentives could raise the deal to up to $24 million. Westbrook felt he was being underpaid and wanted to restructure his contract. Luckily the Eagles complied.

Westbrook's new deal is sure to reel in a ton of money for arguably the best running back in the NFL (Al Tielemans/SI)

Westbrook signed his original deal in 2005, which paid him $25 million over five seasons, the last of which being 2010. As the all-pro running back improved into–well, an all-pro running back–, he definitely earned himself the right to ask for a new deal, but the Eagles were a bit weary of signing an extension for a 29-year-old back. Traditionally after 30, performances of running backs tends to decrease.

Disgruntled cornerback Lito Sheppard also wants a new deal and recently changed agents to the self-proclaimed ’shark’, Drew Rosenhaus. Rosenhaus is known best to Philadelphia for his ‘Next Question’ speech from the driveway of one Terrell Owens. Westbrook changed his agent as well last month firing Fletcher Smith. He signed with All Pro Sports & Entertainment Inc., the group that includes Lamont Smith who represented Barry Sanders, Jerome Bettis, and Eddie George.

Now that the Eagles have made a new deal for Westbrook that will surely cause them to pony up the dough, Westbrook will face greater expectations. Last season he rushed for 1,333 yards and seven touchdowns. But Westbrook is hardly a one-dimensional back. He also caught five touchdowns and had over 700 receiving yards.  As does every player in his situation, Westbrook will spend this season under the magnifying glass of fans and management, judging if he was worth his weight in whatever amount of gold the birds decided to give him.