Jackson, a second-round draft choice out of California, will become the first Eagles rookie receiver to start on opening day in Andy Reid's 10 seasons as coach.

"My plan was to come in here and help this team right away," Jackson said yesterday.

His veteran teammates seem to think that's possible.

"I like seeing that confidence," running back Brian Westbrook said. "He has proven what he can do in the preseason and now we need to see that in the regular season. I think he understands the preseason is gone. The regular season is a whole different level than the preseason. He knows what we expect from him."

Reid was less forthcoming about who would see the majority of action at the receiver position opposite Jackson.

"We'll mix guys in there," the coach said.

It also is unknown how Reggie Brown will fit in. Brown is the only health-related question mark for Sunday's game at Lincoln Financial Field. The fourth-year receiver was limited in practice yesterday as he continued to recover from a strained left hamstring he suffered in the team's second preseason game. It was the first time he had practiced since being injured.

"We'll just play it day by day and see how he does," Reid said.

Home-field disadvantage

"In any sport, you want to have home-field advantage," safety Brian Dawkins said. "But I think the potential to have definite home-field advantage here in Philadelphia is far greater than any other place in the NFL, notwithstanding domes because domes are different."

The Eagles also want to reverse an opening-day trend that has seen them go 3-6 under Reid.

"You want to get out of the blocks early and start fast," Westbrook said. "We really haven't done as well as we wanted to do in the openers in the past. That's something that we continue to work on. I think Andy has continued to try to improve on those things. We did little things different in camp."

The opener could be the first chance to see if Reid's "over-30 club" idea during training camp paid dividends. Reid rested his players who were 30 and over every third day during camp.

Warning, warning

"It's not last year's team when they were decimated by injuries," the coach said.

Star running back Steven Jackson said new offensive coordinator Al Saunders has brought a different mentality to the Rams.

"The philosophy is more attacking," Jackson said. "It's an offense that doesn't take what the defense gives us. We take what we want and make the defense react to us. That was the biggest difference I noticed from last year to this year."

Extra points

- Bob Brookover