So Much For That...
Playing the starters tomorrow as a way to achieve a faster start? Not so much, according to the BWs.
Eagles coach Andy Reid said Tuesday he hadn't decided on the playing time breakdown for the various units in Thursday's preseason finale, but Reid seemed to indicate he wanted to get more reps for his starters. However, the starters played a limited role in practice Tuesday, and other sources said this preseason finale will be like all the others for the past several years -- a last fling for roster hopefuls battling to survive, in which no starters' health will be risked...
“It seems like a long period of time (before the Sept. 7 regular season opener). I wanted to get those guys into the third quarter in this last game and ended up pulling them out at halftime," Reid said.." It’s just something to evaluate, the number of plays they have had.”
Apparently, the key word there was "evaluate." Indications are that despite what Reid said, the evaluating has already taken place, and Reid has decided 9 days isn't too long a break, after all, when weighed against the possibility of injury. So don't look for any starters Thursday. Do expect to see a lot of Shaheer McBride and Marcus Paschal.
It was another case of watching what Andy Reid did rather than listening to what the coach said.
Even though Reid said he had not decided whether his starters would play in tomorrow night's exhibition game against the Jets, you could tell by the way practice was run yesterday that they would not.
Quarterback Donovan McNabb and the first-team offense spent the morning working as the scout team for the reserve defense, and the first-team defense did the same for quarterback Kevin Kolb and the reserves on offense.
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