With that, here we are again at Lehigh. All of the rookies are signed, which is good. But Brian Westbrook is unhappy about his contract, which isn't. All of the key people are healthy, apparently. But now we hear that two of the rookie draft choices on the defensive line, Trevor Laws (foot) and Bryan Smith (hamstring), are a bit hobbled.

With that, we begin. Welcome.

It is fun to pump up the

potential for Big Problems! at the opening of any training camp - you know, just because - but this really is a pretty

placid place right now. When it all comes down to it, there is no overarching, team-breaking

concern currently visible.

Unless somebody big goes down with an injury, this is setting up to be just-another-camp for the Eagles. Which isn't all bad.

Listen to DeSean Jackson:

"The best thing for me, I felt, was to get into camp and just leave a good impression for

everybody and start off work

early," said the second-round draft choice who figures to be the Eagles' punt returner this year, a really key piece for them. He signed his deal late Sunday night.

"It's huge for me," he said. "The last thing I wanted to do was leave the impression that I wanted to hold out and not get

into camp for whatever reason possible. I'm here and I'm glad I'm here and I'm anxious to get to football and make everything happen."

Things really are set up pretty well, no matter how many angry-looking photos of Westbrook have been retrieved from the newspaper archives in the last few days; there is no shortage, by the way. Holding out is a sucker's game when you are under contract - and, in the case of the Eagles, it almost certainly will make them less accommodating.

So Westbrook figures to show up, and the talks between the

Eagles and his new agent figure to be ongoing, and a deal will be announced on some slow Tuesday in October. There is no

hurry mostly because there is

no deadline. And while Westbrook might huff and puff, what choice does he have?

Which leaves us with veterans doing as little as humanly possible to get through what is going to be a longer camp at Lehigh than last season, and with young guys trying to prove themselves.

Jackson is today's proxy for hope. He will be a focal point

after the disaster of last summer with Jeremy Bloom as their punt returner. He is coming off a hamstring injury suffered in minicamp.

"I've been working hard on it and it's 100 percent, ready to go," Jackson said. " . . . I feel like coach Reid and everybody else on the staff picked me because they have faith in me and they know what I'm capable of doing. Now it's just all up to me to go out here and prove it and just put in the hard work."

Jackson was wearing a backward Phillies cap and green

earrings as he spoke. He said he brought clothes and stuff with him, as well as a DVD player.

"I brought my 'American

Gangster' so when I'm feeling down, I'll just put it in there and watch Denzel [Washington]," he said. "I'm just happy to be here and ready to get started."

So, we begin.

Funny thing: At Andy Reid's first training-camp meeting with the Eagles' players back in 1999, seven rookies were absent because they had not signed their contracts in time. One of those players was quarterback Donovan McNabb, whose agent would go out and pretty much accuse the Eagles of racism in their

dealings, mentioning one

particular contract provision that the Eagles were refusing to offer and wondering, "Why pull the plug now when for the past couple of years you've been

consistently doing it for the white quarterbacks?"

That was a lovely bit of business - but, like most of this stuff, it passed in a couple of days. By comparison, this year

is nothing. *

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hofmanr@phillynews.com.

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