One day at a time for Marcus Smith

As someone once said, even a journey of a million miles must begin with the first step. For 2014 first-round pick Marcus Smith, that was Wednesday's practice session, the first one he fully participated in since injuring his hamstring nearly a month ago.

Smith didn't dress for Monday's 26-24 loss to the Falcons. It remains uncertain whether he'll be active for Sunday's game against the Cowboys.

"We'll see how the week goes along here, coach Chip Kelly said Thursday morning. "We've had one day of training. He did participate in everything yesterday. So we'll see what goes on today, tomorrow and Saturday.''

Kelly declined to speculate on how far behind Smith is.

"I haven't really looked at it that way,'' he said. "I was just happy he got through practice (on Wednesday). We'll see how he progresses today.

"But it's not how far behind (he might be). We haven't really had those discussions. It's just let's see where he is from a health standpoint. Does he hold up?

"He did go through a little bit longer work session than he's been used to. So we'll see how that works out. That's kind of how we're looking at things right now.''

Vinny Curry, who is an interior pass-rusher in the Eagles' nickel package, was the Eagles' No. 3 outside linebacker Monday behind starters Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham. He got in for a few snaps at linebacker in the Eagles' base defense.

"He was up and down there,'' Kelly said. "A couple of times he lost contain on the quarterback when we had a naked (bootleg). But I thought the transition, (considering) he had never really played there and just got his feet wet a little bit in the preseason, we felt he did a good job. But we've got to get him down a little bit on some of the responsibilities.''

Kelly made it clear that Curry will continue to be an interior rusher in nickel, unless something happens to Barwin or Graham.

"He was in there on Monday,'' he said. "He played inside in our nickel stuff. His role hasn't changed from that standpoint. When we're in our base defense he's playing outside. But when we're in nickel, he's still an inside pass-rusher for us.''

--Just one of Sam Bradford's 52 pass attempts Monday night was longer than 20 yards. But Kelly warned not to put much meaning into that. He said they were playing a Falcons defense whose main goal was making sure the Eagles didn't complete any passes over their head. "Everybody knows we can do it (throw long),'' he said. "Sam's got as strong an arm as anybody in the league. But when you're playing that type of defense, they're going to keep the ball in front of them. But when you're keeping the ball in front of you, we had no issues moving the ball in the second half. Sam was 21 of 25 and we were moving the ball down the field. The only thing that set us back in the second half were the penalties. We slowed ourselves down. If that's what a defense is going to do, I don't think you prove anything to anybody by saying, even though they're back there, we're going to just throw the ball up. That's kind of silly, to be honest with you.''

--On the Cowboys' offensive line, which is considered one of the best in the league: "They have three outstanding players in (Tyron) Smith, (Zach) Martin and (Travis) Frederick. Three first-round draft picks. And they filled in nicely around them. But I think they play well together. They always seem like they're on the same page. There's not a lot of busts that go on with that group. There's a real consistency in terms of how they play.''

--Kelly praised the development of safety Chris Maragos, who played 36 snaps against the Falcons when Malcolm Jenkins dropped down into the slot in nickel packages. Maragos, one of the league's top special teams performers, played just 15 defensive snaps for the Eagles all last season. "He's just gotten better,'' Kelly said. "He's improved in Year 2 here. He came in last year and was just trying to hone in on playing special teams. He's a great special teams player. But we talked to him last year (and said) don't sell yourself short as a defensive back because we think there's potential for you there. And I think he's done that. I think he's really embraced both roles. I think he may feel a little more comfortable in understanding what we're doing special teamswise to the point where he can tackle the other part of it.''