What Actually Matters

First, some housekeeping.  I don't get 'em all right (see notably: Samuel, Asante), but you have to admit, no one's given you better offseason Scott Young coverage than the IgglesBlog.  Guess he saw the writing on the wall too:

Eagles coach Andy Reid ... received the same warning from Young's agent, Jeff Courtney, but still seemed miffed about the decision of his fourth-year guard from Brigham Young. Reid said he didn't know why the second-string guard wasn't in attendance.

Young, a fifth-round draft choice in 2005, is entering the final year of his contract and is scheduled to be paid $520,000 this season. After playing in 12 games in 2006, he dressed for just one game last season. If his intent is to get released, he may have helped his cause.

A little surprised a career backup is holding out, though.  Reid seems like the kind of guy who's willing to help out a player he respects by getting him into a good situation.  But not if you annoy him first. 

Maybe the agent had already asked for a trade and been shot down, though.

As for the big news from minicamp, I'm not sure it's Lito Sheppard's holdout.  I mean, of course it's the big NEWS, so let's not all start emailing Eagles beat writers again, but in the end, I wonder if this:

The mystery of Young's absence should be solved someday, but the far bigger story yesterday was that cornerback Lito Sheppard decided to boycott at least the first day of this camp at the NovaCare Complex.

Everybody noticed that, but no one should have been surprised.

"It's a voluntary camp," Brown said. "I know he's working out. He's working out with me, so he's cool."

Will end up mattering as much as this:

After finishing last season with a league-low 19 takeaways, Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson is stressing getting to the ball in these minicamps. In fact, the defensive players are required to pick up the football and sprint with it even after incomplete passes.

"I don't know who started that, but it's getting on my nerves," safety Brian Dawkins said. "No, I'm just kidding. It's different. To me, it's all a part of conditioning also. You get to the ball and you pick it up. It's about practicing turnovers and picking them up and scoring. At the same time, it's about having a good time. You're supposed to have a good time on the defensive side of the ball."

Think about it this way.  In the last four seasons, Lito has averaged four interceptions a year.  (Some of which have been painfully huge.)  Joselio Hanson, on the other hand, has averaged, well, zero.  He's played a fair amount during that time, but let's say for the sake of argument that if Lito leaves, Hanson will probably manage at least one INT in 2008.  So with all the brouhaha over Lito leaving, we're talking about a net of about minus-three turnovers -- arguably.

If turnovers are actually something you can coach -- if they're not just about playing good football, but also having a "take it away" mindset -- it's not such a stretch to think that all this effort in the offseason to get guys to focus on ripping the ball away at all costs could easily overcome that minus-three we get from losing Sheppard.

Here's the other key point there.  I don't want to lose Lito Sheppard.  Both as a fan -- I love watching him play -- and as a hopeful passenger on the Eagles Super Bowl Train, I have no desire to see him get shipped out of town.

But consider where losing Sheppard would hurt:

• Is it against the Cowboys? You'd say yes because of his history and how much talent they have, but assuming Chad Johnson stays out of Texas, Dallas doesn't really have a second wide receiver who scares people. It's more about Owens and Witten.
• It's not the Giants, where the Eagles just need to figure out a way to stop Burress. That's on Asante.
• It could be Washington, which has two receivers who give the Eagles some trouble and also loaded up on that position in the draft. But this year the rookies may not be too scary.

Now, obviously, I'm assuming away injuries and it never hurts to have a guy like Lito playing for you.  But you could at least make a case that the Eagles can get through the NFC just fine without him.

But then they could run into Indianapolis (Harrison, Wayne, Clark) or New England (Welker, Welker, Welker) in the Super Bowl.

And that might suck.