Which brings us, once again, to the Eagles and Operation Cornerback.

Ever since the April draft, when the expected trade of unhappy, two-time Pro Bowler Lito Sheppard failed to materialize, the Eagles have preached the positiveness of going to war with three - count 'em, three - experienced starting cornerbacks: Sheppard, Sheldon Brown and $56 million newcomer Asante Samuel.

While cynics have focused on the difficulty of keeping three corners happy in a two-cornerback world, the Eagles' creative defensive coordinator, Jim Johnson, has insisted that it won't be difficult at all.

Said it again for the umpteenth time yesterday morning after the Eagles' first training-camp workout at Lehigh.

"I don't know why we can't [use all three],'' he said. "That's our plan right now. We're gonna roll those guys. All three. Lito will play left and right. Asante will basically play left. Sheldon can play both. The main thing is, we're going to have them all on the field a lot.''

Sheppard, Brown and Samuel aren't scheduled to arrive at camp until tomorrow with the rest of the team's veterans. The first full-squad workout will be Friday afternoon.

Sheppard attended the mandatory early-May minicamp, but was a no-show at the subsequent voluntary minicamps in June.

Earlier this month, he fired his longtime agents, Lamont Smith and Peter Schaffer, and replaced them with Drew Rosenhaus, whose huge stable of clients includes the Cowboys' Terrell Owens and the Bengals' Chad Johnson. He said last week that Sheppard will be at training camp on time.

Sheppard and Brown have been the starting corners for the last four seasons. But Samuel was given oft-injured Sheppard's starting left corner job the day he signed his megabucks deal in early March. Best friends Sheppard and Brown will duke it out for the starting right corner job beginning Friday.

If Sheppard can stay healthy - he's missed 14 games the last three seasons - he likely will wind up as the starter on the right side. He's a better outside cover guy than Brown, whose strength is inside against slot receivers.

The key to keeping them all happy, though, will be the amount of time Johnson puts all three of his corners on the field together this season.

In early May, Johnson said it "might be 60 percent of the time, it might be 70 percent of the time.'' Yesterday, he was a little more conservative.

"I anticipate [using three corners] 50 or 60 percent,'' he said. "The offense is going to dictate a lot. More and more teams are going to three and four wideouts on first and second down. We're going to match up with our nickel defense. But I'm not going to let 'em dictate too much. I might start the game with all three of 'em on the field. There's a lot of things we feel comfortable doing with those three guys. It'll work itself out. I'm not too concerned about that right now. It's good competition.''

Johnson said when he puts Samuel, Brown and Sheppard on the field at the same time, it likely will be at the expense of a linebacker - probably strongside 'backer Chris Gocong - rather than one of his safeties. The problem is, Johnson also wants to have Gocong on the field as much as possible because of his pass-rushing ability.

"It'll be more a nickel type [five defensive backs] defense,'' he said.

Johnson said he talked to Sheppard about the cornerback situation after the draft.

"I talked to Lito because I knew it was tough on him,'' he said. "Sheldon kind of knew what we were doing anyway. But I talked to Lito. I said, 'Listen, this is how it's going to be. We're going to go this route.'

"I know it was tough on him. Tougher on him than anybody else. But he knows the situation. There's no reason to think it's not going to work out. He seems to have a good attitude.''

The cornerback who really is going to see his playing time slashed is Joselio Hanson. The 5-9, 185-pound NFL Europe alum has done a solid job in his two seasons with the Eagles. He started four games last year when Sheppard was hurt, including the Eagles' late-season win over New Orleans and their near-upset of New England. The Eagles gave up just one passing TD in those two games.

"He fit right into our scheme,'' Johnson said. "He's more of an inside-type corner. A slot corner. He's a smart guy. Does an excellent job on the inside receiver.

"Now, all of a sudden we've got three [other] good corners. He might be a backup [fourth corner]. But he's a good special-teams player. A good role player for us.''

Radio city

Jim Johnson is taking a wait-and-see attitude on the use of the defensive radio helmet, which will be used for the first time this season.

"I could've gone either way on it,'' he said. "We'll see how I like it. I think I'm going to like it. Maybe we won't. I wish we had had a preseason to experiment with it before they approved it.''

Johnson said he will send in the defensive signals. Middle linebacker Stewart Bradley and weakside linebacker Omar Gaither both will have helmets with radio transmitters, but only one player is permitted to be on the field with the radio helmet. Gaither will wear a helmet without a transmitter when he's on the field with Bradley.

Johnson has talked about using some more 3-4 alignments this season, but said it probably will mainly be on second and third down. *