Sheppard, after all, is said to be committed to showing up in 6 days when Eagles veterans report to Lehigh.

Brian Westbrook - a more important, less replaceable player - has made no such commitment, since firing agent Fletcher Smith earlier this week. Westbrook held out in 2005, against Smith's advice, skipping a week of workouts and incurring $42,000 in fines because he was unhappy with the pace of contract talks.

Westbrook, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, doesn't have an agent right now, as he waits out the 5-day transition period the NFL Players Association requires. The Inquirer, which first reported Westbrook's firing of Smith, speculated that he might be hiring the All-Pro agency of Peter Schaffer and Lamont Smith, the agents just fired by Sheppard. Schaffer said yesterday no one in his office has talked to Westbrook, so far.

A source close to the situation said yesterday that Westbrook will not be represented by Rosenhaus.

The Inquirer reported that when asked last week about reporting to training camp, Westbrook said: "To be honest with you, I don't know. I don't foresee me holding out of this training camp, but . . . "

The Eagles have been talking with Smith about adjusting the 5-year, $25 million contract extension Westbrook signed in 2005, which binds him through 2010, but apparently, their idea of an adjustment isn't what Westbrook has in mind, after putting together one of the greatest seasons in franchise history last year. Westbrook's 1,333 rushing yards were third in the NFL; his 2,104 total yards were first, and were the highest total by any player in the Eagles' 75 seasons. He made the Pro Bowl, caught a team-record 90 passes, for 771 yards, and led the NFL with 104 first downs.

A team source said the Eagles are aware Westbrook, who turns 29 in September, dropped Smith, but the team has heard nothing about new representation. The relationship between Westbrook and Smith has seemed rocky almost from the beginning; when Westbrook dropped agent Tony Agnone and hired Smith in 2005, Westbrook seemed to feel the mere act of hiring McNabb's agent, who had a good relationship with the team, would bridge the gap between the sides. Instead, the Eagles made him play well into the season under a $1.43 million restricted free-agent tender. They agreed to an extension only as they were looking for a locker-room and fan-base boost the weekend they dismissed troublesome wideout Terrell Owens.

The comparisons even Westbrook's side was making back then - to players such as then-up-and-coming Houston star Domanick Davis and Raiders free-agent signee LaMont Jordan - seem ridiculous now. Westbrook has said he wants to be paid at the level of a top-of-the-league star, such as San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson, the only NFL player to amass more yards from scrimmage than Westbrook since 2004, the year Westbrook became a full-time back. (Tomlinson has 7,880 yards in 63 games, Westbrook 6,768 in 55.) Tomlinson signed a reported 8-year, $60 million deal in 2004, with $21 million in guarantees. But running backs tend to have shortish primes, and Tomlinson was only 25 in 2004; it's hard to say whether Westbrook could get that same deal now - he will be nearly 37 in 8 years.

Smith did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Nothing was new on the Sheppard front yesterday, and there is unlikely to be much new there, from the Eagles' end. The team seems to have no intention of revisiting the contract extension Sheppard signed in 2004, which takes him through 2011. In fact, the Eagles contend Sheppard was one of the highest-paid corners in league history last year, since, technically, last year was the first year of the extension. Their reckoning counts the $8.7 million signing bonus Sheppard accepted in 2004 - a generous figure for a player who wasn't even close to becoming a free agent - into last year's compensation. Sheppard, who could not be reached for comment, probably doesn't see it that way. He is scheduled to make $2 million this year in base salary.

Meanwhile, a team source confirmed that the dispute between the NFL and the NFLPA over how bonus money can be structured in 4-year rookie contracts is keeping the Birds from inking second-round picks DeSean Jackson and Trevor Laws, with rookies scheduled to report to Lehigh on Monday. The dispute has to do with ownership's decision to scrap the current collective-bargaining agreement, meaning there is no salary cap in 2011 right now. The dispute is to be heard by a Special Master today. The Eagles, and everybody else, hope for a decision over the weekend, but it isn't clear whether that will occur.

The team source said both pacts should be resolved quickly once the decision is announced. *