Eagles' Molk gets hike in play

DAVID MOLK'S girlfriend is in town, so they took a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo yesterday. Walked around, had a pleasant time. Nobody recognized the guy who figures to be snapping the ball to Nick Foles for at least the next 6 weeks or so.

"That's the one nice thing, I'm 6-1, instead of 6-6. I don't really stand out in a crowd," Molk said near the end of the day he became the Eagles' starting center, with Jason Kelce needing surgery to fix a sports hernia suffered in the third quarter of Sunday's victory over the Washington Redskins.

Eagles coach Chip Kelly said yesterday he didn't know how long Kelce would be sidelined. (Six to 8 weeks might be a good guess, based on other athletes' history with the injury.) Kelly said until he has a better grasp of that, he won't know what the Eagles might do to shore up their battered offensive line.

With Lane Johnson returning from his four-game banned-substance suspension after Sunday's game in San Francisco, and Matt Tobin healthy again now, they might do nothing, or something as simple as bringing center-guard Josh Andrews up from the practice squad, swapping him with tackle Kevin Graf.

"Reinforcements are coming . . . Getting Lane back is going to be big for this football team," general manager Howie Roseman said last night on his 94 WIP radio show.

Much earlier, Molk's day began with a bulletin from another injured Eagle, guard Evan Mathis, who can't play for another 6 weeks as he rehabs an MCL sprain. "Evan texted me this morning and said, 'Kelce's out, you're in,' " Molk recalled.

Asked how this made him feel, Molk issued the standard disclaimers about never wanting to see a teammate get hurt, but let's be real - this is a guy who was out of football a year ago, drawing up plays and weightlifting programs for Lemont Township (Ill.) High, where he played before starring at Michigan. Molk is about to embark on the best chance he has had to forge an NFL identity, since the San Diego Chargers drafted him in the seventh round in 2012 to back up Nick Hardwick.

"From sitting around doing nothing [last year] to starting. That's quite the jump," said Molk, who was cut by the Chargers at the end of the 2013 preseason. A handful of NFL workouts ensued, including one with the Eagles, but teams like versatility in their reserve offensive linemen, and at 6-1, 290, Molk is pretty much exclusively a center, and even then, only a center for a certain type of team, one that prizes athleticism over bulk.

The Eagles are such a team, which Molk said was why he signed here in the offseason, despite the presence of Kelce, a pillar of the offense, and backup Julian Vandervelde, who was waived during the preseason with an injury settlement over a back problem. Molk had no way of knowing the Eagles, extraordinarily lucky last year not to have an offensive-line starter miss a game, were about to see that luck do a 180.

"I knew it was a good fit for me. It was somewhere I could be successful," Molk said.

He had an excellent preseason - at one point, Kelce said Molk was playing better than he was - and when the season began, injuries to Mathis and Johnson's replacement, Allen Barbre, in the opener led to Molk taking snaps at guard for the first time since early in his college career. Sunday, Kelce went down clutching at his stomach, and Molk got 46 snaps as the Eagles' center.

"He's a competitor," Kelly said yesterday, when asked about Molk. "I think he's extremely quick off the ball - he really gets into the defender very quickly. He'll fight you. He's a tough, competitive guy in there, and he'll scrap and give you everything he's got."

Molk said the intensity of Redskins-Eagles, on the field and in the stands, quickly let him know he wasn't in San Diego anymore.

"They're very passionate. I guess this rivalry between the Eagles and the Redskins, I didn't realize it was as intense as it was - coming from San Diego, where, frankly, nobody cared," Molk said.

Kelly said Molk did a good job with the blocking calls. That's one area among many where teammates have said Kelce excels.

"It'll be nice being with the group I'm going to play with, throughout practice, getting all the extra work the starters get," Molk said. "I don't think I can replace [Kelce], but what I can do is do everything I can do, put a great product on the field, help this team win games while Kelce's out."

Assuming no NFL suspension for Jason Peters from Sunday's brawl, the line this week in San Francisco figures to have Peters, Molk and Todd Herremans, for sure. The other two spots might depend on how the Redskins game graded out. Andrew Gardner, who played both right and left tackle, really seemed to struggle. Dennis Kelly seemed to play pretty well, at left and right guard. Tobin could be a possibility to join the mix, or Wade Smith, who played 18 snaps at left guard, if, say, Kelly and offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland wanted to leave Herremans at right tackle, where he finished the Washington game.

Chip Kelly said it was coincidence, not punishment, that Darren Sproles didn't carry the ball again after his fumble on the Eagles' first possession. "It was just one of those days . . . We were struggling running the football," Kelly said . . . He said first-round rookie Marcus Smith "did a really good job" playing 16 snaps in nickel after moving from outside to inside linebacker during practice last week, considering his inexperience . . . Kelly did not offer a prognosis on inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks, whose calf strain led Kelly to tape together Smith with Emmanuel Acho and Casey Matthews in an attempt to compensate . . . Kelly said the Eagles hit Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins, even if they didn't sack him . . . Asked his opinion of Chris Baker's hit on Nick Foles, after watching the game film, Kelly said: "It's a penalty." He did not venture an opinion on whether Baker should be fined. Asked if he supported Jason Peters' decision to go after Baker and get ejected, Kelly said, "Next question."

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