I'm Starting to Worry About Dawk

When Brian Dawkins missed minicamps this year to attend to his wife and premature twin daughters, everyone said he'd be fine.  Gary Cobb told readers:

"These workouts aren't going to do anything for Dawk.  The fact that he has missed them isn't going to affect his game.  He would have been able to help the other safeties and keep them on top of their game, but he'll be ready to help them in camp.  Brian has always been an ultimate professional and that's why Andy Reid and crew have no problem with his missing this time."

Dawkins has always been a guy who trained hard in the offseason, so there was no reason to believe that would change.  But then training camp began and almost right away Dawk came up with a problem with his Achilles.  Inside the Eagles summed up what most everyone felt about the situation:

"Some players simply do not need training camp and Brian Dawkins is one of them. It is just not worth the risk of losing him for an extended period of time."

Which makes perfect sense.  It's not like he needs time to learn Johnson's schemes.  Besides, the Eagles aren't exactly settled at the safety position, so Dawkins being out gives them even more snaps to use to evaluate the young guys jockeying for position.

There are two problems, though.  The first is that while the Eagles aren't really that old as a group, Dawk actually kinda is.  With yesterday's trade of Kelly Holcomb to the Vikings, Brian is now the oldest player on the team.  He turns 34 in a month and a half, and unlike a lot of the other aging vets on the team who either kick the ball around or mostly stand in place, Dawk plays a position that depends very much on speed.

The second problem is that Dawk ... didn't look great on Sunday night.  He seemed tentative, his timing was a little off and he clearly wasn't 100 percent.

It's almost certainly true that a player of Dawkins' caliber could miss minicamps or training camp or a couple of preseason games and still be ok.  It's not nearly as certain that the same person could miss minicamps AND training camp AND a couple of preseason games and still not show any effects. 

The starters won't play in the last preseason game, which means Dawk has had all the game action he's going to get before lining up against Green Bay on September 9th.  Will he be ready?