There were no big surprises when  the Eagles announced their 8-member practice squad. (Can there be surprises on a practice squad?) Members work out with the team but are not eligible for games unless they are signed and brought onto the 53-man roster. Other teams can sign players to their rosters off opponents' practice squads. The participants make $4,000 a week during the season, which is more than most of us, but less than, say, Donovan McNabb.

    As expected, and as was foreshadowed Sunday by your Eagletarian, the Eagles brought back sixth-round linebacker Andy Studebaker, and added CB Trae Williams, an intriguing player who was cut by Jacksonille after being drafted in the fifth round out of South Florida. At one point last spring, Williams, who played alongside Cowboys' first-round pick Mike Jenkins at South Florida, was a highly regarded prospect.

    The Birds also brought back Chester's own favorite wideout, Shaheer McBride, CB Kyle Arrington, FB Jed Collins and DT Mike Marquardt, all of whom spent training camp time with the Eagles. They added OT Chris Patrick and WR Willie Reid.

    Patrick, (6-4, 280), has already been with San Francisco and Detroit this preseason. He played at Nebraska and was on Green Bay's practice squad last year. Reid was a 2006 third-round pick of the Steelers, from Florida State, where he and Deion Sanders are the only 1,000-career-yard punt returners, and his 15.4-yard punt return average is a school record. (A little DeSean Jackson injury insurance, one would guess.) So is hard as this will be for his many admirers, it would seem that Reno Mahe is really, finally, retired.

*

In other Eagles-related news, the Cleveland Browns were awarded offensive lineman Scott Young off waivers. Young was cut by the Eagles on Saturday. Young joins former Eagles teammate Hank Fraley on the Browns' o-line.

Hey, commenters: I can't seem to get the respond-to-comments function to work, so I'll put this up here and hope you see it:

   Gasperson has run out of practice squad eligibility, as was alluded to in a weekend Eagletarian. (Every detail of each post should be inedlibly etched on your brains!)
      King Dunlap was IR'd. He has an ankle thing that dates way back, but I think they just figured they'd stash him there, since he's a longterm project anyway. He did have a good preseason.

     Also, in Tuesday's Daily News, look for Tony Hunt's thoughts on winning the fullback battle (surprisingly, the transition doesn't seem nearly as difficult now as it seemed a week ago, when Hunt thought he might not make the final cut because of the position switch). Also, Lito Sheppard seems to accept (for now) that he isn't being traded, but Lito seems to be saying either that he will be starting at corner Sunday against the Rams or that he deserves to be starting, ahead of either Sheldon Brown or Asante Samuel. Maybe we'll see what that's all about when practice resumes on Wednesday.