Eagles' Kolb & Bradley likely to get week off to clear their heads

EAGLES COACH Andy Reid spoke of Kevin Kolb and Stewart Bradley "making progress" yesterday, but neither the quarterback nor the middle linebacker seems at all likely to play Sunday when the Birds visit the Detroit Lions. Bradley might be a little less of a longshot than Kolb.

"They are feeling better," Reid said. "I would tell you Stewart's ahead of Kevin right now, as far as how they feel. I'm going to take this day by day. I'm not gonna tell you they're in or they're out, I'm just going to follow the doctors and the testing that [is] taking place, follow that day by day, and we'll cross that bridge down the road, later in the week."

Reid conceded that neither Kolb nor Bradley fully passed concussion testing yesterday, 3 days after their injuries, and they were not cleared to sit in on meetings, where the game plan was discussed. Reid seemed to feel they might be cleared for the meetings today, but it doesn't seem either could practice before tomorrow. It would seem particularly unlikely that an inexperienced quarterback who missed almost all the preparation would then start a game; if the Eagles craft a game plan around Vick, a lefthanded, extremely mobile quarterback, it would be hard to utilize that game plan with Kolb.

Then there's the matter of the controversy that has developed from the Eagles' decision to let both players return briefly to last Sunday's season-opening loss to Green Bay, after their injuries. The team might want to err on the side of caution going forward.

The Eagles said Bradley and Kolb were able to exercise lightly yesterday without incurring symptoms, at least right away.

Does Reid feel the team should have done anything differently Sunday?

"We obviously go back and look at everything," Reid said. "I feel very comfortable that we followed the protocol that was set forth. I will tell you that the most important thing that happened was that Rick followed up on it. He didn't just base it off of that first initial evaluation. He came back and he checked on the players to see if they had any symptoms, and then the second time he checked, they did, and he made the move right there."

Reid said he wouldn't "get into" what changes the Eagles might make in their evaluation process.

"Obviously, we're evaluating the situation," he said.

Reid said Vick would take "every snap today, and the way it looks, he'll have every snap tomorrow. We'll take Friday as it comes."

So where does this leave the 0-1 Eagles?

With Vick poised to start a game that counts for the first time since the finale of the 2006 season, for one thing.

"I don't really go out to try to prove to anybody that I can still play this game," Vick said yesterday, when asked if his performance against the Packers proved he is ready to be a starter again, after serving time in a federal prison for dogfighting, then working as a backup and a Wildcat QB last year with the Eagles. "The primary focus is to put this team in a position to win whenever I'm on the field . . . You can't go out trying to prove yourself, because that's adding more pressure to this game, and it's already hard as it is."

Wideout DeSean Jackson was asked how the offense might be different with Vick at the controls from the start.

"I think they're just kind of keeping it a lot simpler," Jackson said after practice. "Just going out there and doing the base stuff, trying not to have it overly complex for him. Just do things that he's comfortable with doing."

Jackson said the team is "sorry not to have [Kolb and Bradley] out there, but we still have to keep it rolling."

Jackson, 23, and fellow wideout Jeremy Maclin, 22, said they grew up as Vick fans; Maclin said he had Vick-model sneakers, growing up in Kirkwood, Mo.

"Mike was arguably the face of the NFL," earlier this decade, Maclin recalled. "Highest-selling shoe, all that type thing. Pro Bowl quarterback. He definitely was a guy most people wanted to watch."

Maclin said he has spoken with Kolb, who has not talked to reporters since the injury.

"He's doing all right," Maclin said. "When you experience a concussion, sometimes there's lingering effects."

Kolb's wife, Whitney, promoting a charity basketball game between Eagles' wives and Redskins' wives, told the Daily News' Jenice Armstrong yesterday that her husband is improving.

"He's doing very good," she said. "He's doing a little better every day. He'll bounce back and be stronger than ever. It's a long process."

Bradley drove away from NovaCare in a black Lexus yesterday as reporters were arriving for Reid's news conference.

Omar Gaither, a former starter in the middle and on the weakside, stepped in when Bradley left the Packers game. Reid said Gaither will start in Detroit if Bradley cannot.

A reporter noted that Gaither, an Eagle since 2006, has "kind of been in these shoes before," preparing to fill in.

"I've been in every pair of shoes, I think, they have here," Gaither said. Then he mixed his apparel metaphors: "I just have to put on one of those hats I've had on before, being the starting MIKE. That's the hat I'll wear this week."

Gaither stepped in for Bradley when Bradley went down in training camp last year with a torn ACL, but Gaither suffered a Lisfranc sprain in the fifth game of the season and underwent season-ending surgery. This year, he entered the season as the top backup at all three linebacking spots.

"If it were my way, I wouldn't have to have so many hats, but it certainly helps that I've done it before, and done it well," Gaither said.

At least he is getting the starter's reps this week in practice.

"You want to say you do the same thing every week whether you're starting or not, but we're all human," Gaither said. "You pay a little more attention to detail" when you know you're starting.

Whether it had anything to do with Gaither or not, the Eagles' defense really seemed to sag when Bradley went down, during the drive that gave the Packers the lead for good at 10-3 in the second quarter. That TD was the first of four successive drives that resulted in 24 Green Bay points. Then the Eagles stiffened again, allowing no more points in three possessions plus a kneel-down series at the end of the game.

"I think it was just the flow of the game," Gaither said. "It just so happened at that time they were hot and they were moving the ball. It's just the way that the game happened."

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.

Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/LesBowen.