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Lito Sheppard is the endangered starter who has gotten most of the attention, the way the Eagles gave away his left cornerback job to Asante Samuel, leaving Sheppard and Sheldon Brown to fight it out for the right side spot, so far. But Herremans, the Birds' starter at left guard the past two seasons, also faces a challenge. The coaching staff made it plain at the end of 2007 that they weren't overwhelmed by his play, and that gargantuan Max Jean-Gilles would get every opportunity to unseat Herremans this year.
In the Andy Reid Era, these "competitions" sometimes have a predetermined outcome, or at least a preferred outcome. Two years ago, Hank Fraley had about as much chance of holding off Jamaal Jackson's challenge for the starting center's job as Reid has of fitting into a Speedo. But Herremans doesn't seem to find his situation unfair, or hopeless.
"I wasn't happy with how I played, the last stretch of the season," Herremans said. "I felt my technique broke down . . . basically, this offseason and this camp, I've just been working on getting stronger, cutting a little bit of weight and working technique like crazy."
Herremans had arthroscopic knee surgery on Oct. 2, during the Birds' bye week. He returned without missing a game. Maybe he should have waited, but that might have just given Jean-Gilles an earlier chance to showcase the power he flashed in two lengthy appearances at right guard near the end of the season, after Shawn Andrews suffered an MCL injury in his right knee.
"There isn't really any excuse for it, but after the bye week I didn't feel like I did before. Who knows if it was a mental thing?" Herremans said. "It was my choice to come back, so I'm not going to say that was the reason, or anything, but I wasn't playing how I wanted to play, how I felt I should have been playing.
"Max is a good player. I'm sure that's going to make me practice even harder. I think everybody has competition for their job, whether it's obvious or not . . . It's anybody's game right now. I'm just out there working hard as I can every day, just to keep my job."
Herremans was asked if he feels he can be the starter in 2008.
"If I can play the way I'm capable of, I believe so. I've just got to play how I know I can and stay healthy."
Jean-Gilles, who said yesterday he'd like to lose about 10 of his current 365 pounds, said he got more minicamp reps than he'd ever gotten.
In those late-season games in place of Andrews, at Dallas on Dec. 16 and at New Orleans the next week, "I did all right," Jean-Gilles said. "I wasn't 100 percent, but I'd say I did all right, decent."
Second-round rookie wideout DeSean Jackson seemed to struggle fielding punts on Saturday, but looked much better Sunday and yesterday. Jackson - one of the most elaborately tattooed Eagles, with the competition in that regard getting stiffer every year - said the NFL punts looked a little different at first.
"I think the biggest difference is how high the punts get in the air, the hang time. You just have to focus a lot. The NFL balls are bigger, so they have more movement in the air, and things like that. Basically, you have to get a good jump on the ball, just make a good read. I felt very confident back there, comfortable. The more punts I catch, the better I'll get at it."
On offense, Andy Reid likes to try to overwhelm rookies, to see how they'll cope.
"You look at the mental part of it: Can he handle the load he's given and does he have the retention to be able to dial up that play when it's called in the huddle and be able to execute it," Reid said yesterday. "Then there's the physical part of it, the execution of, 'Does he have the skill to do that?' He came in here and we all heard he was fast and he can catch the football, but until you get here, you don't know that. He looked like he had good quickness, good speed, and he caught the ball OK."
Donovan McNabb, who apparently was on a minicamp pitch count, sat out the final practice. There was no indication of a problem . . . Tra Thomas missed yesterday having some sort of cyst on his forehead examined . . . Linebacker Rocky Boiman and tight end Brent Celek, both of whom had postseason shoulder surgery, were limited participants. *
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