Season Opener

Now that the Season is ready to start we can look at the team as it is and see what things look like. The Eagles finalized their 53-man roster on Sunday with the addition of linebacker Tank Daniels, and on Monday announced the eight-man practice squad. The Eagles spent a good part of the offseason focused on improving in two areas - creating turnovers and beefing up the special teams unit. The Eagles' newest acquisition is a familiar face who hopes to do both. "This is so crazy for me. I just can't believe it," Daniels said. "The one thing that I do love about both teams that I've been on is they both hate Dallas. I'm really cool with that. Even though I'm an Arkansas kid, I've never really liked the Cowboys. Fortunately enough, I've been on two teams that hate the Cowboys. Daniels returns to Philadelphia where his NFL career began. A rookie free agent signing in 2006, he spent the first 10 weeks of his rookie season on the practice squad before joining the 53-man active roster before the battle with Indianapolis. Daniels recorded nine special teams tackles in the final six regular season contests. In addition to helping out the special teams unit, Daniels will be the second-string strongside linebacker behind Chris Gocong. Daniels remained familiar with the Eagles' defensive scheme in New York since it was orchestrated by former Eagles assistant Steve Spagnuolo. To make room for Daniels, the Eagles released Rocky Boiman. Daniels became the first player from Division II Harding University to play in the NFL. His jersey number (No. 3) was retired by the school this past season.
Free safety Brian Dawkins, who as many of you know is my favorite player on the team, suffered a mild tendon strain in the game with the Patriots. Head coach Andy Reid said that Dawkins should be ready to play in the team's season opener against St. Louis. Dawkins stressed the importance of practicing and maintaining his body to perform at the level he has prepared it to be at for the 2008 season. Dawkins said. "I'm in a pretty good spot. I'm going to do what I need to do to get back on the field and make sure I keep my conditioning where it is." The younger players on the roster will hopefully feed off of the veteran safety's work ethic and philosophy of practicing with purpose, playing with passion. Dawkins was visibly frustrated as he limped off the field Friday night. More than anything, he said the angst steamed from his desire to finish off the series with the first-team defense. Even at 34 years of age, Dawkins does not allow fear of injury to influence his style of football. In the event that the injury somehow prohibits Dawkins from playing every down, he has full confidence in the backup safeties. Even though Dawk is my favorite player I wonder how many more years we have with him on this team. He has suffered from more injuries in the last few years and unfortunatly that might be a sign that it's time to retire. The good news is that as Dawk himself puts it, "That's always been a key in an organization, period, for you to have quality depth. Not just depth, but quality depth, and I believe we have that."
Donnovan is looking better than he has looked in several years, the defense is shaping up to be as good as ever, and we can look foward to some big plays from some of the other offensive players. I hope that DeSean Jackson can live up to the hype but I really don't think that will be the case. I think that Andy Reid has done a good job of drafing players over the years in every area except WR. I don't want to take anythig away from Jackson, he will be a great addition to the team esspecially on special teams, but I just dont think he is that #1 receiver that this team is still lacking. McNabb said in his blog that he is looking forward to this season. I am too, I want to see the old McNabb the one before all the unfortunate injuries. He was, and should be again now that he is healthy again, fun to watch. It is just too bad that they wern't able to get him a big target to throw the ball to.
The 2008 season opens at Lincoln Financial Field for the first time since the ’04 campaign. After winning their final three games of 2007, the Eagles want to continue that momentum and get off to a good start in this campaign. This should be a good battle involving two of the league’s best running backs. Brian Westbrook led the NFL with more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage a year ago. Steven Jackson has had three straight years with more than 1,000 rushing yards, and in 2006 he gained 1,528 rushing yards and added 90 receptions and another 806 yards. Even though I don't think they have got the WR problem taken care of yet I am looking foward to this year and hope that the team will play up to it's potential. It's a long season though and a lot of things can happen between now and then so I think it will be fun to watch.