Kolb was replaced by an older Michael Vick, but there’s still a lot of youth surrounding him.

Looking ahead to the 2011 season, it looks like the average age on the team will be coming down with David Akers and Quintin Mikell likely leaving town.

Now, is it bad to have young players? Absolutely not, especially if they’re producing. The Eagles have had a lot of young players jump right into their lineup and make an impact.

Looking at last year’s draft class alone, they had two rookies who were starters on opening day and had five or six more make significant impacts as well. All these players will contribute again in 2011, and there may be even more from the class who make an impact this season.

This all sounds great, but there has to be an element of risk that’s understood. Not every young player will blossom in their first season. Some guys need more time to catch on to the speed of the game and learn the system they’re placed in.

In 2011, it looks like the Eagles will again rely on youth to step up. As mentioned, it looks like veterans Akers and Mikell will not be retained, and the expectations are that Alex Henery and Jaiquawn Jarrett will fill those holes. Both of those players haven’t even suited up as Eagles yet.

Those are big shoes to fill. Both have been selected to the Pro Bowl and have gone to the Super Bowl with the Eagles.

Undeniably, Andy Reid and his staff are infusing this team with youth. A lot of it has been pleasant so far, and that could be a good sign for years to come.

However, coming off two large draft classes (24 players total), are they trying too hard to get younger? Are you worried about the reliance on these young players?

There are two players left from the Eagles Super Bowl team from a few years back. These players are Quintin Mikell and David Akers. Both are scheduled to be free agents, and both were given the hint that they won’t be returning to Philadelphia after this weekend’s draft.

Nothing is set in stone just yet, and these guys may not know their fate for a little while due to the lockout. However, it doesn’t look likely that the Eagles will bring back either Mikell or Akers.

In the second round of the draft, the Eagles took safety Jaiquawn Jarrett. He and Kurt Coleman will battle for the strong safety position, which will likely be up for grabs with Mikell leaving town.

In a very surprising move, the Eagles drafted Alex Henery in the fourth round, a kicker out of Nebraska. Teams don’t typically draft kickers that high, so with the Eagles doing that, it likely means that Akers’ days are done as an Eagle.

If Mikell and Akers leave town, it won’t be a new experience for Eagles fans. We’ve seen Eagles icons like Brian Dawkins, Donovan McNabb, and Brain Westbrook leave town recently. We’re starting to get used to it.

This team is getting younger and hasn’t been afraid to part ways with long-standing veterans in order to do so. It’s a business, right?

As the Eagles roll into the 2011 season, they will again be considered a young team, especially defensively. With 24 draft picks over the last two years, the Eagles have a lot of new faces.

The new faces of the players will be paired with new faces in the coaching staff. There were a lot of moves within the coaching staff. A lot of people moved around internally. Most notably, Juan Castillo making the switch from offensive line coach to defensive coordinator.

At the same time, the Eagles brought in two studs in Jim Washburn and Howard Mudd won’t have any problem whipping the young guys into shape.

The season is still a long ways off, but there’s already a bit of a different feel to it.

There was some solid play from both the free safety and strong safety this season but there was also some inconsistency. Let’s take a closer look at the safety position and see what the picture looks like entering the 2011 season:

Nate Allen: Allen easily won the free safety spot in training camp, and made a significant impact right from the start as he began the season with three interceptions in the first four games. Allen showed that he has playmaking ability, and that is exactly what this defense needs. Unfortunately, Allen was not able to take in the playoff experience because he went down with a season ending knee injury. Overall, Allen was one of the most consistent Eagles on the defensive side of the ball this season.

2011 Outlook: Although Allen went down with a significant knee injury, he should be ready to go by the start of next season. Look for Allen to become more comfortable as the free safety of the Eagles, and take on more of a leadership position in 2011.

Quintin Mikell: Mikell was somewhat of a disappointment this season. He was the one Eagle in the secondary that really had experience, but he struggled in pass defense and missed far too many tackles. I understand that this defense was young and inexperienced but Mikell, in my opinion, didn’t play up to his ability this season. There was not enough consistency from Mikell, and it should be interesting to see what the Eagles do in the offseason concerning the strong safety position.

2011 Outlook: Quintin Mikell officially became a free agent at the end of the season. I personally don’t think that the Eagles are going to bring Mikell back, because he is 30 years old and is coming off of an average season. Look for the Eagles to draft a strong safety in the draft and possibly acquire a veteran through free agency.

Kurt Coleman: Kurt Coleman was, without a doubt, a pleasant surprise. After being drafted in the seventh round of the 2010 draft, expectations were at a bare minimum for the Ohio State product. Coleman was called upon when free safety Nate Allen went down with a season-ending knee injury and performed remarkably. Coleman was without a doubt, the steal of the 2010 draft.

2011 Outlook: Coleman gives depth at the free safety position, but there is an outside chance that the Eagles try to use him in the strong safety position. Coleman certainly has played his way into a position on the Eagles roster.

OFFSEASON
It should be interesting to see what the Eagles do at the strong safety position. It’s evident that the Eagles have found the free safety of the future in Nate Allen. I expect the Eagles to try to pick up a veteran in the offseason to bring some leadership and experience to the defense.

First off, the Eagles need to find a solid right guard who can consistently play at a high level. We saw a lot of inconsistency at the position throughout the season from both Max Jean-Gilles and Nick Cole. To the surprise of a lot of people including myself, the Eagles failed to draft an offensive lineman last season.

Head Coach Andy Reid has typically been known for trying to target lineman in the draft, but didn’t do so in 2010. This March, I expect things to be different. The Eagles could afford to bring in a few players along the offensive line and I think it’s somewhere they will look early in the draft. There will be some options at the guard position in free agency, but regardless of whether or not the Eagles try to go after one, I still believe they need to take a guard during the draft.

Another big need for the Eagles will be at the corner back position. Poor play from the Eagles corners killed us in various games, and they need a talented player who can step up and play next to Asante Samuel. Dimitri Patterson showed us that he can be a good player but also looked awful at times. I expect him to compete for a starting spot in Training Camp, but I believe the Eagles will have a new face that will be part of the competition as well.

Staying in the secondary, the two safety position are also interesting with Quintin Mikell becoming a free agent this offseason. Everyone believes Mikell will look for a big pay day and this might prevent him from returning to the Eagles.

The Eagles saw two talented rookies, Nate Allen and Kurt Coleman, play a lot this season but will lack a veteran to help mold the young players if Mikell leaves. Mikell played fairly well this season so the Eagles will have to see what it will cost to bring him back. If it’s too much, I expect them to try and look for a veteran free agent to bring in.

On defense, the Eagles will also need to decide what they want to do with their linebackers. Stewart Bradley, Ernie Sims, and Omar Gaither will all be free agents. I expect the Eagles to let Gaither walk, but it will be interesting to see what they do with Bradley and Sims. Jamar Chaney came in and played well in the absence of Bradley, but are they confident enough in Chaney to let Bradley walk?

Sims will also be an interesting guy to watch. He played well for most of the season, but may be looking for an amount of money the Eagles are willing to pay. They have a young player in Keenan Clayton that they like but would he be ready to step into a starting role in just his second season? Regardless, the Eagles will need to look at some free agents or draft picks to bring in at linebacker.

The Eagles will also need to address the running back position. LeSean McCoy is coming off his best season, but Jerome Harrison and Eldra Buckley become free agents this year. I’ve never understood why they liked Buckley so much, so I think they’ll just have to make a decision on whether or not to keep Harrison. Again, this will be a position they’ll have to bring in more talent.

As I mentioned, McCoy was golden this year, but he needs a legitimate number two behind him to take some of the load off.

Finishing with special teams, Sav Rocca and David Akers will both be free agents. Akers is the longest tenured athlete in Philadelphia, but he is aging. He also ended his season with a letdown. Personally, I think this may be the end of Akers’ run in Philadelphia.

Overall, the Eagles have a lot of needs to fill but have done a good job of putting personnel together to be a legitimate playoff team each season. Like in years past, they will need to wheel-and-deal this offseason to remain a contender.

Offense
- LeSean McCoy is working his way up into being the best screen pass catching back in the league. That, combined with his continuous improvement in rushing the ball, is proving him to be one of the best picks in the 2009 draft.
- Riley Cooper made one of the grabs of the season on a bad pass from Kolb. He became the DB on the play and snagged the ball out of the air for a huge completion and kept it from becoming an INT.
- Chad Hall has some value as a trick player.
- Kolb’s mobility continues to impress me.
- Brent Celek, while not targeted very often, made some nice grabs and fought for yards.

Defense
- In the first half they played out of their minds, getting to Collins and shutting down Chris Johnson.
- In fact, they kept Johnson in check the entire game. He had no huge runs and only racked up a total of 73 yards, 66 being rushing.
- Asante Samuel continues to show that he’s among the elite players in the league at reading and jumping routes.
- He also had some nice tackles on the day. Refreshing.
- Quintin Mikell had a very good game. He had an INT and forced a fumble while keeping his targets in check.
- Antonio Dixon deserves to remain the starter when Bunkley is ready to come back. He is a force on the line and was a huge part of the pressure they had on Collins.

Special Teams
- Sav Rocca is quietly having his best year as an Eagle. Very few, if any, shanked punts so far and Sunday was no exception. He did an excellent job of pinning guys deep.
- David Akers redeemed himself by nailed 3/3 FGs and murdering the ball on kick offs. No pink shoes.
- Jorrick Calvin had a huge kick off return that should have given the team momentum. I think we’ve found our KR man for the season.

Coaching
- The defensive game plan in the first half was darn near perfect.
- Initially it appeared as if Reid had made some half time adjustments to the offense.

Negatives

Offense
- Kolb was off pretty much all day. He made poor decisions and forced balls. In the first half he could not adjust to the wind and as a result many passes sailed on him.
- The offensive line went back to who we knew they were all along. They allowed pressure during the entire game and as a result Kolb was rushing throws all day.
- Mike McGlynn is directly responsible for that McCoy fumble in the redzone. He didn’t take on his assignment and as a result the defender was able to blow through the line and disrupt the handoff. That play killed the drive and any momentum that we mat have been able to muster.
- When the pressure was on, this offense was able to do next to nothing. This was the total opposite of last week when they were able to respond to pressure with scores and big plays.

Defense
- Ellis Hobbs and Nate Allen covering Kenny Britt was clearly not working. I’ve never been a big fan of Hobbs and he showed why that was the case on Sunday. Allen’s inability to cover Britt is forgivable. He’s a rookie. What’s Hobbs’ excuse?
- In the second half they were not able to get pressure on Collins at all. It reminded me of when we faced Kurt Warner and the Cardinals in the NFC Championship game. We were getting pressure and making their offense look silly for a while and then we took our foot off the pedal. Once that happened the offense found its rhythm again and took advantage of our weaknesses. Same thing happened on Sunday.
- Amazing that that’s pretty much all I can see wrong with the defensive performance. Given the box score you’d think there’d be a lot more.

Special Teams
- Despite my raving on him, Jorrick Calvin did make one crucial mistake. When the defense forced a punt he fumbled the ball away on the return which pretty much sealed the deal for the Titans. He fumbled it when fighting for extra yards, something that we see across the league every year. Drives me insane.

Coaching
- Sean McDermott….what were you thinking? When something clearly isn’t working (Hobbs and Allen on Britt) you need to change it. Put Samuel on Britt, move Mikell to cover over the top. Something. You did nothing and it killed us.
- We had 3rd and 3 and we were running the ball very effectively. What did we do? Pass it when the passing game was not getting it done. Further evidence of Reid’s inability to change game plans. Maddening.

All in all, it was an ugly game that we deserved to lose. Based on quality I truly believe the Eagles were the better team but they just didn’t play like it. The Titans took advantage of the Philadelphia lapses in coverage and you got to give them credit for doing so. Rough game, rough weekend and now we have two weeks to dwell on what could have been.

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!

Last Sunday, the two runners combined for over 180 yards on the ground. That’s ridiculous. Unacceptable. The Eagles were getting pushed around on the line and making poor tackles, leading to large gains on the ground for both running backs. They are two different types of runners but both were able to find plenty of success. It’s hard to allow any team to be able to run the football like that and find a way to win. Did the defense hold it’s own to some degree? Yes. They had a red zone interception and held the Cowboys to a field goal opportunity that was missed. However, if you had to give an overall grade to the defense it would not be good.

Was their improvement in the second half? Yes, there was. The Eagles only allowed seven points in the second half and it came on a 49 yard run by Felix Jones. We hope that the second half defense is the one that shows up this Saturday and not the one who looked horrific in the first half. Either way, we know that the first priority is going to have to be stopping the run. Dallas is going to come out early and try to do it again since they had so much success last week but the Eagles need to take a stand. Load the box and shut it down early.

Defensively, Quintin Mikell is the player I look for to really step it up this weekend. I called him out a few weeks ago and he’s the player you have to call out whenever the defense doesn’t perform. His personal performance was not strong and he also has to be a better leader on the field. Jeremiah Trotter is there for leadership but he doesn’t see the field nearly as much as Mikell. Q needs to do a much better job tackling, especially around the line of scrimmage. I also want to see some guys really go after the ball and force some fumbles. One turnover that was somewhat a fluke isn’t going to cut it. This defense has got to perform better.

To start, the game has been moved to a 4:15 start due to the snow storm currently in the area. Right now in the San Francisco area, the typically weather hits highs in the high 50s or low 60s. This team is not used to frigid temperatures with snow.

Also, the 49ers had to travel all the way from the west coast. Typically, teams who have to travel from one coast to the other aren’t as successful. We’ve seen that twice with the Eagles as they lost to both the Raiders and Chargers out on the west coast.

You can look at other things like the Eagles playing at home, the fact that it’s December, they’re a hotter team, etc. and it all points in the Birds favor. There are no excuses for the Eagles to lose tomorrow. They need to continue their push towards the playoffs with the one game at a time mentality Quintin Mikell has talked about recently. Sunday is the Eagles Super Bowl with the 49ers and it is just as an important game as the rest that remain on the schedule.