On the second day of the draft, the same Eagles spent a fourth-round selection on a cornerback, Jack Ikegwuonu, who is recovering from a major knee injury and won't be able to play this season.

Neither of these moves is playing very well with the Andy Must Go Club, which can't understand how a coach whose team has been to the postseason just once in the last 3 years can afford to plan for the future when he should be devoting every possible resource toward a 2008 Super Bowl run.

Nevermind that the guy the Eagles would have taken with the pick they traded away to the Panthers - Pitt offensive tackle Jeff Otah - probably would have spent his entire rookie season on the bench watching starters Jon Runyan and William Thomas play. Never mind that the Eagles selected two other players in the fourth round in addition to Ikegwuonu and traded away another fourth-round pick for Dolphins running back Lorenzo Booker.

"I can understand that," Andy Reid said. "There are people who are going to criticize. There are going to be some who like it and some who don't.

"The important thing is the ones I drafted who could play, could play. Right now."

In recent years, the Eagles have taken a lot of heat for the fact that very few of their draft picks have made meaningful contributions as rookies.

But Reid is hopeful that's going to change this year. Including Booker, he feels he acquired three players over the weekend who will get playing time right out of the gate.

"They have a chance, if things work out right, to come in and help this football team win games this year," the Eagles' coach said. "I can't say that I've sat up here every year and felt that way.

"There are certain guys who we brought in that I thought it would take a year, or they were playing behind a player that they probably weren't going to beat out. But these three, barring injury or doing something I wouldn't expect them to do, I think they could come in and help us win right away."

Booker, who was selected by the Dolphins in the third round of the '07 draft, will compete with Correll Buckhalter for the backup running back spot. He is a similar type of back to Brian Westbrook, who can be moved around the formation to create coverage mismatches in the passing game.

"He was somebody we really liked in the draft last year, but couldn't pull it off where we were able to get him last year," Reid said. "But he's somebody we've had our eye on.

"He does some of the same things that Brian does. You can flex him out and throw him the football. I think that the combination of [him] and Brian on the field will be a nice combination for our offense."

Then there's the Eagles' first pick in the draft, defensive tackle Trevor Laws of Notre Dame, who was taken with the 16th pick in the second round. Laws, who led the nation in tackles for losses last year for the 3-9 Fighting Irish, figures to earn a spot in Jim Johnson's four-man tackle rotation along with starters Brodrick Bunkley and Mike Patterson, and veteran Montae Reagor.

But the rookie who potentially could have the biggest impact on the Eagles next season is their other second-round pick, wide receiver/return man DeSean Jackson.

Jackson is a lethal-weapon punt returner who brought back six punts for touchdowns during his career at California. While he probably won't see a lot of action as a receiver as a rookie, he'll get an opportunity to return both punts and kickoffs for a team that finished 24th in both punt-return average and kickoff-return average last season.

"He's an explosive guy with great quickness and great acceleration," special-teams coordinator Rory Segrest said. "He's got the ability to take it the distance if we can get him some room.

"He gives you the ability to stretch the field a little bit and use him where teams just can't line up and run right at him and not have to be concerned with the perimeter. That's one of the things we ran into last year. Teams kind of folded in around us and didn't really respect the speed on the edge. He gives you the opportunity to stretch the field and take advantage of the whole field."

Quarterback Donovan McNabb has clamored for an offensive playmaker. Well, Jackson might end up helping McNabb without ever catching a pass, just by shortening the field with returns.

Jackson didn't return kickoffs at Cal, but Segrest said they're going to give him a chance to do it as a rookie.

"We're going to give him a shot there, too, and see what he can do," he said.

Bottom line: Take a closer look at the players the Eagles acquired this weekend before you rip into Reid again for focusing too much on the future and not enough on the present. *

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