Time To Chill Out

^{- Posted by Derek -}

The Eagles have had some rotten injury luck this season.  Not just the "big" injuries, but all the little bumps and bruises that have accumulated to the point that we literally had a fourth-string guy starting last game (who didn't look half bad, actually).  This hasn't exactly been the "firing on all cylinders" type of start to the season we could have anticipated.

But things have gotten so out of whack -- and I mean across the board, not specifically here so much -- that I think it's time for a bit of a rebound.  And I say that with a conviction that goes beyond even my usual, "everyone's zigging, it must be time to at least think about zagging," way of approaching conventional wisdom.

The first step is to break the injuries down into two categories:  1) annoying, but ultimately "these things happen," or 2) scary.

So the Peters thing is definitely in the first category.  All this worrying about King Dunlap just misses the point that Peters is simply laying the groundwork to be next summer's "I've never worked out liked this before" guy.  Peters will be fine, he will start the season at left tackle, and there's not much to worry about there.

Herremans is probably in the same category, but you never know with feet.  Stacy Andrews is definitely in that category.  He may be a touch sluggish to start the season, but he's playing inside and should get progressively stronger. 

As for Shawn, I'm tired of talking about him.  Either his back gets right and he gets back out there or we've got a healthy guy who's looked pretty good in the preseason to take his place.  I'm not sure if this says more about (the same old) Andrews or (the brand new) Justice, but at this point I've fine either way. 

Celek seems fine and Westbrook are fine.  I still don't even want to see Westbrook out there before the games count.  I'll gladly trade the unfortunate first-game fumble for the guarantee that he'll be healthy when it matters.

On the defense, Cole's fine and Sheldon's fine.  I'm a little worried about Darren Howard, but his inevitable regression to the mean meant we were going to have to come up with new answers in there anyway.  That hasn't really changed.

Sure, all these guys could get hurt again.  Or we could have lots of new injuries that keep chopping down the reinforcements.  But the point is, at this moment in time, if you want to see how things are looking, it's not that bad.

- - - - - -

Of course, there are issues beyond the injuries.  Things haven't looked especially crisp out there.  But, again, it's possible to way overrate the importance of some of that stuff.

The defense has looked a little shaky, but there's a reason most teams don't play vanilla schemes with base personnel against Manning and Brady when the games count.  Special teams have really been more inconsistent than disastrous.  Some of that is new personnel and at least some of it has to be the new scheme stuff the current STC is installing. 

(And after watching the three guys take turns at KR duties, I don't know how Ellis Hobbs can possibly lose that job.  He's pretty electric back there, and also seems to know what he's doing.)

As for the offense, I'm not changing my line at all.  Yes, they need to get a couple linemen back healthy, but we've seen nothing so far to dissuade me from the notion that this is going to be a ridiculously good unit.  We have never had this much skill position talent on this team.  And we finally have a late-game finisher in Shady McCoy that we can hand the ball to 10 times -- instead of Brian Westbrook -- and feel confident that he's going to get yards beyond just what the OL hands him.

I think we're good.