IS STOCKPILING DEFENSEMEN
A week from today, the Eagles open the season against the Packers at the Linc.
In no particular order, here are some thoughts on the roster, cuts and news from the weekend.
* A year ago, the Eagles opened training camp with hopes of having Shawn Andrews and Stacy Andrews playing next to each other on the right side. Now, both guys are elsewhere. While it's convenient to lump the two together, their situations really were different. Let's not forget that Shawn started 50 games with the Eagles, including a stretch from 2005-2007 in which he started 47 of 48. He was an All-Pro one season and a two-time Pro Bowler. Stacy gave the Eagles two lackluster starts, and that was it.
League-wide, Shawn is being looked at as a comeback story. SI.com's Peter King indicated Andrews has a chance to win a starting job with the Giants. And both NFL.com and USA Today have written features on him in the last week. The NFL.com piece looks at the path Andrews has taken to get back in the league after the Eagles released him. The USA Today piece focuses on his battle with depression:
Offensive lineman Shawn Andrews, a Pro Bowl performer for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2006 and 2007 who is making a comeback with the New York Giants, learned that many fans in the City of Brotherly Love could not empathize when he was given that diagnosis in 2008.
"I've been called everything in letters," he says. "Some of the stuff I'm even embarrassed to say. One said, 'The next time I read your name, I hope it's in an obituary.' "
* I was not on the conference call with Howie Roseman yesterday, but I thought this quote was interesting when he was asked about the fourth safety: "I think we have someone in mind here and I think [head] coach [Andy Reid] will go through that. I think we’ll talk to the players first before we announce that publicly."
The guys at Novacare will probably fill us in later on who Roseman is talking about, but if I had to guess, I'd say Dimitri Patterson might be the guy.
* Charles Scott tweeted today that he's on the Cardinals' practice squad. The Eagles drafted Scott in the sixth round and dealt him to Arizona last week for cornerback Jorrick Calvin, who is currently on the Birds' 53-man roster.
* Looking at the other NFC East teams, the Cowboys only kept three cornerbacks on their roster. You've got to figure they'll make a move there before Week 1 against the Redskins.
* The only Eagles draft pick (not including Scott) to not make the 53-man roster was Owens, who is on the practice squad. Not the case in Washington. The Redskins cut four of their first six selections from the 2010 draft.
"The worst thing people can do is keep a draft pick just to keep a draft pick," Mike Shanahan told The Washington Post. "What you do is you keep the people who give you the best chance to win."
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