Offensively, you always have to look to the quarterback first. I think that the young offensive players already respect Kevin Kolb and from what we’ve heard, wanted him to be in the position he’s in.

The offense is in Kolb’s hands and he will need to embrace that. He needs to know that offense better than anyone else on the team; he needs to understand what each player is responsible of doing on every single play.

I think Kolb has the leadership qualities a quarterback should have and is ready to run with this offense. Also, I think he may get some help from Brent Celek who seems like he could emerge as a leader. His on the field play increased in 2009 and I can see his leadership qualities doing the same in 2010.

Outside of Kolb and Celek, I think the Eagles will have mostly “lead by example” type players on offense. I think DeSean Jackson is a player that fits this bill. He’s a high-profile player but he’s going to lead by making plays on the field.

Defensively, you have to look to Quintin Mikell first. Mikell got to experience Brian Dawkins leadership first hand and has definitely seen the mold he should try to fit as a leader on defense.

There are a ton of new players trying to learn the defense and make contributions, so they’re going to need someone to go to and ask questions. I think Mikell will be that guy.

The return of Stewart Bradley should also help a lot. He is a natural leader and the middle linebacker position is a place that demands these type of qualities. I can see Bradley being the leader of the Eagles defense for years to come.

You can look at Asante Samuel, but I think he is similar to DeSean Jackson on the offensive side of the ball. He is a lead by example type of guy and although he might be very vocal on the field, he doesn’t project as a leader.

As the 2010 season gets closer and closer, it will be interesting to see what Eagles emerge as team leaders.

Macho Harris, who originally was listed to be in the competition for free safety, is now taking reps at cornerback opposite Asante Samuel. The Eagles have Marlin Jackson running with the first team at free safety with Nate Allen running with the second team. Jackson has primarily played corner in the NFL, but the Eagles brought him in with the intention of lining him up at safety.

There is all sorts of shuffling going on right now and this will probably continue to happen through Training Camp. The Eagles have players that can play multiple positions, which isn’t a bad thing at all. However, I want to see them make some choices so that players can take reps just at one position. I’d rather see players focus on one position instead of spending time trying to learn two.

As far as Macho Harris goes, I’d like to see him stay focused on the corner position. This is where he played in college and no one was super excited about his safety play last year. I’m not convinced he’s a starter, but I think he should compete for the spot. Last year he saw some time covering the tight end, so this could be an option to use him as well.

With Jackson, you have to be nervous about his knees. He’s still running around showing signs that he’s not recovered and I could see him being a complete bust. I’d really like to see him contribute to this team but I’m not convinced he’s going to. This puts a lot of pressure on Nate Allen to step up and start out of the box. Allen doesn’t have a whole lot of competition so if he can play well enough in Training Camp, he could be a starter in the opener.

There’s plenty of other guys on the roster that will compete for starting and depth spots on the team but none of them over excite me. The secondary is definitely going to be something to watch over the next few months.

It will be nice to see the participants from the Eagles play on Sunday but at the same time it would be much nicer if they were gearing up to play the following Sunday.

Here is the full list of Eagles that will be playing:
DeSean Jackson – WR
Leonard Weaver – FB
Jason Peters – OT
Asante Samuel – CB
Trent Cole – DE
David Akers – K
Jon Dorenbos – LS
Donovan McNabb – QB
Quintin Mikell – S

Best of luck to the Eagles players this weekend!

David Akers, placekicker
Trent Cole, defensive end
* DeSean Jackson, wide receiver/returner
* Jason Peters, tackle
* Asante Samuel, cornerback
* Leonard Weaver, fullback

* Denotes a starter.

I’m very happy for both DeSean Jackson and Leonard Weaver. These two individuals definitely deserved it and I’m very happy to see both as starters. Jackson is also the teams kick returner. I would have liked to see Brent Celek and Sheldon Brown make the team but they weren’t able to make the cut. However, the Pro Bowl is the week before the Super Bowl this year rather than the week after so the roster is definitely subject to change. Of course we’d like to see the Eagles be the ones to drop out of the Pro Bowl for a more important Bowl the following weekend.

Positives:
Leonard Weaver – The guy had 19 touches last night for 70 yards. I never would have thought a fullback would be so involved in an Andy Reid system but I am loving it. He did have the bonehead play before half but he did apologize after the game and the Eagles were able to get a field goal.

Donovan McNabb – It wasn’t the best game he’s ever had, but it was another 300 yard passing day. He did what he needed to in order to get his team a victory. I liked seeing him pull the ball down and run for a touchdown but there were a lot of other opportunities during the game in which he should have run the ball. You also don’t want to see those interceptions.

Defensive turnovers – The Eagles forced Alex Smith to throw three interceptions and also recovered a fumble on the day. Forcing an offense into turnovers takes a lot of pressure off your own offense and puts your team in a position to win. This is exactly what the Eagles did yesterday.

DeSean Jackson – No surprises here. The guy had another big day catching six passes for 140 yards and a touchdown. He also got behind defenders and could have had another 50+ yard touchdown but Donovan overthrew him by a step or two. He also became only the third 1,000 yard wide receiver in the Andy Reid era joining Kevin Curtis and some other loser.

LeSean McCoy – I read an article last week that suggested McCoy had hit a “rookie wall.” This didn’t seem to be the case against the 49ers. He carried the ball nine times for 48 yards and scored a touchdown. His longest run was only eight yards so you can see he was consistently picking up nice chunks of yardage. Combine him with Weaver, and you got a 100 yard day between the two on the ground.

Brent Celek – Despite the injuries Celek has, he still played and performed well on Sunday. He was the second leading receiver behind DeSean with four catches for 73 yards and had a real nice play that netted in a 43 yard reception.

Asante Samuel – Surprisingly, we saw Asante drop the hammer on a real nice hit yesterday. Not so surprisingly, we also so him record another interception and also saw him recover the fumble that was knocked out by Sheldon Brown.

Trent Cole – He accounted for two out of the three sacks on Alex Smith and is just a warrior. The guy has been flying around all year and is just really fun to watch. He never quits on plays and is exactly the type of player you want on your football team.

Negatives:
Michael Vick – He left the game with a thigh contusion and was not able to contribute much of anything on Sunday. I hope that he can battle through this as I’d like to have his playmaking threats down the line here. He also adds another phase to the running attack.

Andy Reid’s 4th down call – You all know what I’m talking about, and I’m sure you’re all still scratching your head like I am. Not necessary. The defense bailed Andy out on this one but that still doesn’t make it right. C’mon Andy.

Tackling – Improved from the Giants game? Yes. At the level it needs to be? No. I don’t know if the poor weather the past two weeks has anything to do with it but it really has to improve. This is a playoff team now and you’re not going to go far in the playoffs if you can’t tackle.

Kevin Curtis – We did see the return of Kevin Curtis and he was able to haul in one reception. However, I would have liked to see them try to get him involved a little bit more. He could be a big help down the stretch so they really need to try to get him up to speed.

What positives and negatives did you see against the 49ers?

We still have our starters at the corners in Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown; however, the big question is going to be the depth behind them. Dimitri Patterson has been back practicing again and Macho Harris is now listed on the injury report as a corner (he’s still listed on the depth chart as a safety). Newly acquired Ramzee Robinson is listed as the backup behind Sheldon Brown and Jack Ikegwuonu has been added to the active roster.

Samuel and Brown have both been banged up a little bit so I am hoping they can both stay healthy as I’m weary towards the depth they now have behind them. Patterson has been out for an extended period of time and didn’t see a whole lot of action on defense when he was healthy. I’m sure it’s been quite a long time since Macho has taken snaps at corner, so he’s going to need some time to get reacquainted. I only know two things about Ramzee Robinson: 1.) He was the very last pick of the 2007 draft (Mr. Irrelevant) and 2.) He was cut by the Lions. I’m not impressed by any of this so I’d say the kid has a lot to prove.

The Chargers aren’t the run first team they used to be a few years ago. They have struggled on the ground, but Philip Rivers has really stepped up their attack through the air. I think the Chargers will look to have a lot of three receiver sets to try to exploit the tarnished secondary. Although he is under sized, I could see the Eagles trying to match up Macho Harris with Antonio Gates to prevent him from getting the ball in his hands.

It will be very interesting, to say the least, to see how this secondary plays with all the changes that have happened so quickly.

The Eagles have a pretty decent Pro Bowl resume: Mike Quick, Reggie White, Randall Cunningham, Eric Allen, Keith Jackson, Jerome Brown, Brian Dawkins, Hugh Douglas, Jeremiah Trotter, Troy Vincent, David Akers, Donovan McNabb, Tra Thomas, Brian Westbrook, Trent Cole, Asante Samuel…. And that only partially covers the last 25 years.

Now the question is, who from the Eagles should be voted in this year? While it would be nice to see all Eagles on the ballot get voted in, we know that’s not possible. At this point in the season, the Eagles players that have proved to me they deserve a vote are DeSean Jackson, Asante Samuel, Sheldon Brown, Trent Cole and Broderick Bunkley. Voting will remain open until December 21.

Do you agree with me? Let us know who you plan on voting for and why.

Vote for the Pro Bowl!

This isn’t just happening in Philadelphia. The samea allegations have just come out with Demarcus Ware and it has also been said that Peyton and Eli Manning have fake accounts with thousands of subscribers.

Although NFL players are free to do what they want, I think it would be in most of their best interest not to join the Twitter craze. Short statements on Twitter can get blown out of proportion and you don’t need that type of distraction coming back on your team. So for the thousands of NFL players that read this, I’d recommend not opening your own Twitter account.