Tuesday was fan appreciation day up at Eagles Training Camp in Lehigh but with injuries piling up and uncertainty remaining at many positions the fans might not appreciate exactly what they see.
The injuries continued to pile up for the Birds Tuesday despite the team practicing without the pads.
Eagles wide receiver (and Mr. Kendra) Hank Baskett left practice after injuring his knee, according to Philly.com’s Sheil Kapadia.
Baskett hyper-extended his knee, according to the Inquirer’s Jeff McClane.
Hopefully Baskett isn’t injured badly -- from the sound of things he should be back.
If there is no ligament damage than Baskett should be fine, reported Kapadia.
Baskett said he was “OK” when asked about his knee, said McClane.
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Luckily Baskett is one of many wide receivers who can get the job done. The Eagles can't say the same thing at every position.
Speaking of injuries at thinner positions -- right tackle Shawn Andrews remained sidelined with a back injury Tuesday.
There was some talk that maybe the Eagles would bring back Jon Runyan to fill in if Andrews can’t go. "Big Jon" will soon be cleared to play again after off-season surgery but where he will play remained uncertain.
For now the man at RT is Winston Justice. The 6-foot-6 lineman is best remembered for that one horrible game against the Giants in 2007 when he was run over again and again by New York’s Osi Umenyiora.
The Birds and Justice himself believe that he isn’t the same player he was back in ’07 -- he has improved and wants to show that he belongs, according to PhillyBurbs’ Jeff Offord.
"I have a sense of urgency this year," Justice told Offord. "I approach every practice and every play with a sense of urgency. I feel good this year. God willing, I hope I have a lot more opportunities like this."
And where Justice or Runyan might fill in on the offensive line it remained unknown who would be replacing the void left by Brian Dawkins at free safety.
Quintin Mikell will lead the young defense from the strong safety and possibly free safety spots but the safety position otherwise really remained unsettled.
The Bird’s haven’t showed much depth at safety. Quintin Demps and Sean Jones haven’t excited in their free safety battle, wrote Mark Eckel.
Losing Mikell could be disastrous, Eckel said.
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
One place where the Eagles thought they added some more depth was backup quarterback.
The Eagles reached into the defunct Arena Football League to pick up quarterback Matt Nagy Monday night to be their third-string QB. The 31-year-old Delaware alum was working as a coaching intern with the Birds but stepped into a backup role after regular backup Kevin Kolb sprained his knee Monday.
Kolb will miss the Birds’ preseason opener against the Patriots Thursday but he hoped to be back to practice soon.
It was a dream come true for Nagy -- he was quarterbacking an NFL team -- even if it was only practice, reported NBC Philadelphia's Jade McCarthy.
But the dream was short lived.
The NFL disallowed the Nagy deal Tuesday afternoon because he was still technically under contract with an AFL club, Brian Seltzer reported on his Twitter feed. Nagy spent six seasons in the AFL up until the league folded.
In the meantime the Birds were stuck trying to find another third-string QB to play in the preseason opener.
The best commentary to sum up a slow day at camp came from Delaware Online's Geoff Mosher:
"Without a contact scrimmage Tuesday, there weren’t many 'highlights' from morning practice -- except for the crowd chanting Reid’s name and Reid responding with one of those 'Why bother, I’m just the gallut who coaches the team?' expressions," Mosher wrote.
