Coming out of a prolonged labor stoppage that forced the cancellation of all offseason activities, the Philadelphia Eagles nevertheless proceeded with their plan to rebuild the roster and forge ahead when the NFL Lockout finally ended in July.

During a hastily assembled training camp at Lehigh University, two particular catch-phrases quickly came to symbolize what the 2012 Eagles were supposed to be all about: “Dream Team” and “All In.”

What unfolded instead was a nightmare that left them all out of the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

The Eagles’ epic failure to live up to expectations is The Morning Call’s No. 3 regional sports story of the year.

After winning their opener with a blowout victory at St. Louis, the Eagles dropped their next four. Three of the losses came when the defense, under first-year coordinator Juan Castillo, failed to protect fourth-quarter leads.

Castillo and the defense would come under further fire after the Eagles failed in consecutive November games to protect fourth-quarter leads at home, against the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals, to fall to 3-6.

The 21-17 loss to Arizona served as the flashpoint of the season, not only because the Eagles squandered another lead, but because wide receiver DeSean Jackson was held out of the game for disciplinary reasons while so many of their other key players were injured.

Quarterback Michael Vick missed the next three games, two of them losses, with cracked ribs. Cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie also sat out the next three with an ankle sprain. King Dunlap, a valuable reserve offensive lineman and special teams player, suffered a concussion and missed three games as well.

Those next three games all but mathematically knocked the Eagles out of playoff contention. Although they haven’t lost since, they were officially eliminated shortly after taking the field against the Dallas Cowboys last Saturday, when the New York Giants wrapped up a victory over the New York Jets.

For the Eagles (7-8), the first three-game winning streak of the season thus means very little because they took too long to put everything together.

Nine new starters, including six on defense, and 24 players overall who weren’t on the team last season are among the current 53-man roster. What’s more, the Eagles have new offensive and defensive line coaches, who have introduced radical alterations to the team’s previous methods.

Their offense and special teams have faltered to the tune of an NFL-high 36 turnovers and the league’s second-worst turnover margin (minus-12).

Quarterback Michael Vick, so brilliant in becoming the league’s comeback player of the year in 2010, has been a fragile interception machine who wasn’t available for, or has been unable to, finish four of the Eagles eight losses.

As a result, a potential record-breaking season by running back LeSean McCoy (1,309 rushing yards, 20 total TDs, 48 runs of 10 yards or more, franchise-best 4.8 yards per career rush) has turned bittersweet.

Coming Thursday: The No. 2 Regional Sports Story of the Year.

nick.fierro@mcall.com

610-778-2243

Thanks for reading! .

Coming out of a prolonged labor stoppage that forced the cancellation of all offseason activities, the Philadelphia Eagles nevertheless proceeded with their plan to rebuild the roster and forge ahead when the NFL Lockout finally ended in July.

During a hastily assembled training camp at Lehigh University, two particular catch-phrases quickly came to symbolize what the 2012 Eagles were supposed to be all about: “Dream Team” and “All In.”

What unfolded instead was a nightmare that left them all out of the playoffs for the first time since 2007.

The Eagles’ epic failure to live up to expectations is The Morning Call’s No. 3 regional sports story of the year.

After winning their opener with a blowout victory at St. Louis, the Eagles dropped their next four. Three of the losses came when the defense, under first-year coordinator Juan Castillo, failed to protect fourth-quarter leads.

Castillo and the defense would come under further fire after the Eagles failed in consecutive November games to protect fourth-quarter leads at home, against the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals, to fall to 3-6.

The 21-17 loss to Arizona served as the flashpoint of the season, not only because the Eagles squandered another lead, but because wide receiver DeSean Jackson was held out of the game for disciplinary reasons while so many of their other key players were injured.

Quarterback Michael Vick missed the next three games, two of them losses, with cracked ribs. Cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie also sat out the next three with an ankle sprain. King Dunlap, a valuable reserve offensive lineman and special teams player, suffered a concussion and missed three games as well.

Those next three games all but mathematically knocked the Eagles out of playoff contention. Although they haven’t lost since, they were officially eliminated shortly after taking the field against the Dallas Cowboys last Saturday, when the New York Giants wrapped up a victory over the New York Jets.

For the Eagles (7-8), the first three-game winning streak of the season thus means very little because they took too long to put everything together.

Nine new starters, including six on defense, and 24 players overall who weren’t on the team last season are among the current 53-man roster. What’s more, the Eagles have new offensive and defensive line coaches, who have introduced radical alterations to the team’s previous methods.

Their offense and special teams have faltered to the tune of an NFL-high 36 turnovers and the league’s second-worst turnover margin (minus-12).

Quarterback Michael Vick, so brilliant in becoming the league’s comeback player of the year in 2010, has been a fragile interception machine who wasn’t available for, or has been unable to, finish four of the Eagles eight losses.

As a result, a potential record-breaking season by running back LeSean McCoy (1,309 rushing yards, 20 total TDs, 48 runs of 10 yards or more, franchise-best 4.8 yards per career rush) has turned bittersweet.

Coming Thursday: The No. 2 Regional Sports Story of the Year.

nick.fierro@mcall.com

610-778-2243

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The Philadelphia Eagles have inspired doubt about Andy Reid’s future for weeks. However, Eagles fans like myself who have called for Reid’s departure are now prepared for disappointment, since winning the last two games should be enough to keep him around.

Yet while “improving” to 6-8 and being an extreme long shot for the NFC East crown should save Reid, another NFC East coach with a 7-7 mark and more realistic playoff hopes is on thinner ice. In fact, should the New York Giants lose to the New York Jets and/or the Dallas Cowboys in the next two weeks, Tom Coughlin may be gone much sooner than Reid.

Coughlin has been around for years just like Reid, albeit not for 13 seasons. The bigger difference between them is that Coughlin has actually won a Super Bowl and didn’t need to lose four NFC title games first. Yet Coughlin has been even closer to wearing out his welcome than Reid, especially as the Giants have fallen from 6-2 to 7-7 in 2011.

Coughlin is more expendable for the Giants than Reid is for the Eagles, since he doesn’t have as much power and has been much more volatile. But it is still funny that he might be closer to being fired, even though he actually started 6-2 and the Giants have actually been able to win in the fourth quarter, and that he wasn’t consumed by “Dream Team” hype or free agent disappointments.

Yet in the NFL, how one finishes is more important than how one starts. While both the Eagles and Giants seem destined to end the year in a rotten fashion, they are getting there in different ways. Philadelphia is at least making one more effort at a division title with two straight wins, while New York is falling down with a 1-5 mark in the second half. But the Giants are used to coming apart in the second half – with the exception of that closing run in 2007 – unlike Reid and the Eagles.

Philadelphia has already pushed one head coach over the edge this season, as Miami’s Tony Sparano was fired after losing to the Birds on Dec. 11. Now the Eagles can help push Coughlin out by losing, as a loss to the Cowboys on Dec. 24 and a Giants loss to the Jets would give Dallas the NFC East and eliminate New York and Philadelphia. Such a fate might put Reid back on the hot seat, but he would still have a better chance to stick around than Coughlin.

Through all his year of annoying the Eagles fan base and falling just short of glory, Reid keeps finding a way to stick around a while longer. Coughlin has been doing that for years as well, yet unlike Reid, his luck may have a shorter shelf life – which didn’t seem likely about six weeks ago.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

Other stories by this contributor

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Steelers have no faith without Roethlisberger, divisional title

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That’s all the news for today.

The Philadelphia Eagles and San Diego Chargers are incredibly similar in many ways. Eagles fans like myself have ranted about their Super Bowl near-misses every year, yet the Chargers are just as much of a near-miss franchise. This season, it looked like the bottom had fallen out for both Philadelphia and San Diego, as they completely collapsed even before the postseason.

The Eagles and Chargers were both 4-7 a few weeks ago, and looked ready to get their long time frustrating head coaches run out of town at last. Yet Andy Reid and Norv Turner may have saved their jobs with a few December victories that have kept Philadelphia and San Diego improbably alive. However, this is nothing new for the Eagles and Chargers, as they are once again red hot in December when it is too late to really do any damage.

Both Philadelphia and San Diego are experts at winning big in the final weeks of the regular season. They always go into January with major momentum and fuel hopes that this is finally their year to win the Super Bowl, only to get cold when it counts in the postseason. Last year, the Eagles were both hot and cold in the final month and stayed cold in the playoffs, while the Chargers recovered from a 2-5 start and got to 9-7 when it was too late to save their season.

That same scenario is happening again for the Chargers, as they are once again rallying back from a terrible first half of the year and are getting scary again. But for the second straight season, it might be too late to get them into the playoffs, in spite of how they destroyed the Baltimore Ravens by 34-14 on Dec. 18. At 7-7, San Diego still needs a great deal of help to win the AFC West and overtake the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders, even though the Chargers might be among the hottest teams in the AFC right now.

Over on the East Coast, the Eagles are trying to put together an impossible rally of their own. Like San Diego, Philadelphia humiliated itself by underachieving in the first three months of the season. But in December, Reid once again flipped the switch and put together two easy wins over the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets. And the Eagles were even more thorough in destroying an AFC playoff contender at home, as they throttled the Jets by 45-19.

Philadelphia is clinging to life even harder than San Diego, since it is still 6-8. But two more victories and key losses from the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants could get the Eagles into the playoffs in spite of it all. And even with their mostly embarrassing seasons and poor records, no one would want to play the Eagles or Chargers in the playoffs if they did find a way in.

These two teams were supposed to be this scary all year and finally get over the Super Bowl hump. Instead, they have waited too long to get good, as usual, and now have to be utterly perfect for two more weeks just to make the postseason. Even if they do find a way, they are still long shots to actually make the Super Bowl and win a ring at long last, which is the goal they have fallen short of for over a decade already.

Philadelphia and San Diego are two of the cruelest franchises in the NFL, as they are major letdowns at the beginning and end of a season without fail and still get everyone’s hopes up in the middle. Right now, they are raising hopes for redemptions and miracle Super Bowl runs right on cue – yet this also means the Eagles and Chargers are on cue to let everyone down worse than ever any moment now.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

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That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.

The Philadelphia Eagles have established a typical pattern for the season. Ever since their 1-4 start, the Eagles have gotten into the habit of teasing us fans that they have turned it around for a week or two. For at least one game every couple of weeks, it looks like Philadelphia is the team that it was supposed to be when Super Bowl and “Dream Team” hype built up. But after that brief tease, the Birds spend the next few weeks falling further than ever and making us look foolish for believing in them again.

With that kind of formula leading to a 4-8 start, we should be immune to the false hope that a good victory can bring. At the least, that is what we will have to tell ourselves after a 26-10 win over the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 11 and after the deficit in the NFC East went down to two games.

The good Philadelphia team returned by dominating Miami on defense, forcing three turnovers and not getting tripped up by mistakes from Michael Vick or DeSean Jackson. Although Vick completed just half his passes, LeSean McCoy only ran for 38 yards and the Eagles only beat another 4-8 team, this still looked like a club that was better than its 4-8 mark. Of course after the last two horrific games against the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, the standards for looking better were a bit low.

But right on cue, Philadelphia showed enough promising signs to make us wonder why it couldn’t be this good more often. It also has to make the most masochistic of us wonder if the Eagles can finally be good more often and take advantage of its one last slim chance. After the New York Giants rallied back over the Dallas Cowboys and made 7-6 the best record in the NFC East, the Eagles still can’t say that an 8-8 finish wouldn’t be good enough this season.

There are few logical reasons to think that, yet logic has not played a part in the NFC East this year – otherwise New York, Dallas and Philadelphia would have much better records. Otherwise every time the Eagles have had an opportunity to make some noise when it really counted, they would have actually done it. They would have kept momentum going after two straight wins over the Washington Redskins and Cowboys following that 1-4 start, or when they upset the Giants last month as well.

But just as the Eagles show signs of life right on cue, they give it back on cue a short time later and bring us down worse than ever. Even if they beat the New York Jets on Dec. 18 and look ready to finally put it together, it could just be a set up for the biggest letdown of all. That pattern is far more consistent and reliable than Philadelphia has been as a whole; yet until the Birds are officially eliminated, we are hard wired to keep wondering if it can finally be broken.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

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Thanks to the downfall of the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC East has come down to the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. If that wasn’t the case, Eagles fans like myself would have a very strict eye on the big Cowboys-Giants showdown on Dec. 11. But since it won’t impact Philadelphia in any way, all it can do is watch Dallas and New York decide the NFC East and wonder what could have been.

Either way, this prime time showdown should determine the fate of the division in some way. If the Cowboys prevail, they will pretty much have the NFC East wrapped up while the Giants descend into further disarray. But if the Giants win, it will further illuminate the fact that this is the weakest NFC East race in a long time – which makes it more upsetting that the Eagles couldn’t take advantage.

Despite a four-game losing streak and Tom Coughlin being on the hot seat, New York can still move back into first place with a win in Dallas. It is astonishing that a 6-6 team on a four-game slide can still do that – although perhaps less so in an era where a 7-9 Seattle Seahawks team can reach the divisional playoffs. But that happened in an NFC West that everyone dismisses as the worst division in football, whereas the East is supposed to have higher standards.

Everyone in the NFC East has had a downfall or collapse in some way, as the Washington Redskins fell apart after a 3-1 start, the Eagles have spent all season shooting themselves and the Giants’ 6-2 start looks very far away. As for the Cowboys, they could have run away with the division by now if not for several blown leads in the first half of the year. But with a victory over the Giants, they will likely run away after all.

Improving to 8-5 normally isn’t enough to provide a cushion in this division. Yet if Dallas improves to that record and is two games up over a 6-7 New York team that’s lost five in a row, it would pretty much be the whole ball game. The NFC East still wouldn’t look pretty, but it would be clear cut who the best team is – or at least the one that stayed standing the longest.

However, a Giants victory would leave both teams at 7-6 and likely make a mere 9-7 record good enough to win it all – at best. It will cement the NFC East and its contenders as the dregs of the conference for the first time in recent memory, even though it might then be the only division decided on the final weekend.

Yet the Cowboys and Giants hardly look like threats to knock off the likes of the Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers in January. Although the Giants came close against the Packers and 49ers, they need to actually make the playoffs to get another shot. That will likely be impossible if they don’t beat the Cowboys – and if they do, then Dallas will look like a less viable contender and more like a club collapsing right on cue.

The NFC East should be under the Eagles control by now, if they had just held onto a few more leads. Instead, they are a non-factor as the fate of the division is decided on Dec. 11 – either as one where the Cowboys ultimately took control, or one where the winner is the division’s worst champion in many a year.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

Other stories by this contributor

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There is the quick update of the day.

The Philadelphia Eagles are not used to losing big in the Andy Reid era. Of course, Eagles fans like myself have experienced tons of massive losses in the last 13 years, although they have mostly happened in January. Since playing in January isn’t an option this season, Philadelphia may officially approach its worst season of the millennium.

There have been two losing years and one .500 season during Reid’s tenure, with the 1999 campaign technically being the worst at 5-11. The 2011 Eagles can still top that by losing their last four games, which cannot be ruled out right now.

But even if they get to 5-11 or 6-10, it will be considered far worse than the 1999 year because it was Reid and Donovan McNabb’s(notes) first. It also looked much better after the Eagles made the playoffs the next season and began their run of four straight NFC title games after that. Despite all the losses in 1999, it was the stepping stone to something greater, so it got a pass in Philadelphia.

The only year that has been as chaotic and controversial as this during the Reid era was 2005, and even that could be excused away. Terrell Owens(notes) became the easy scapegoat for it all, as his contract dispute helped torpedo the defending NFC champions while McNabb’s injuries finished them off. While it did serve as the beginning of the end for the Eagles as a leading Super Bowl contender, the 2005 season was dismissed as a freakish, one-shot disaster.

2007 has the least excuses, however, as it wasn’t a rebuilding year and it wasn’t held hostage by one player. It was the most mediocre campaign in Reid’s career – and that may be kind since it took three straight wins just to salvage an 8-8 record. By that time, it was starting to sink in that the Eagles might not become as strong as they were from 2001 to 2004 again.

This year it will take four straight wins to save an 8-8 mark, and perhaps Reid’s job. 7-9 might even be enough to soften the blow, especially with wins against playoff contenders in the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys. Yet a 6-10, 5-11 or 4-12 finish should be more than enough to make this the worst Eagles season since the end of the Ray Rhodes era.

It is already worse than 2005 because more than one controversial element is tearing this team apart. It is worse than 1999 because that was the beginning of Reid’s time in Philly, whereas this year might be the end. And it will be worse than 2007 automatically when/if the Eagles lose a ninth game. Therefore, this is indeed an unprecedented season of misery for Reid and for Eagles fans – one that hasn’t been seen in this century.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

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Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.

What are your opinions.

“[The playoffs] are never out of reach when you have your queen on the board and that’s Andy Reid.” — Michael Vick(notes) on the Philadelphia Eagles chances of making the playoffs.

Queen on the board, or ace in the hole, or whatever it was that Michael Vick meant, the Philadelphia Eagles are done. Not like the first time they were done this year, after a listless effort against the New York Giants, or the second time, when a loss to San Francisco put Philly at an insurmountable 1-3. And this is totally unlike a few weeks ago when the Eagles were 1-4 going into their bye and were really, really finished. Nope, losing to the Chicago Bears to go to 3-5 on the season is it. Put a stake in the Eagles; they’re done.

At least that’ll be the popular theme this week. It follows Week 8′s “the Eagles aren’t as bad as you think,” and Week 9′s “the Eagles are favorites to win the NFC East” and has just as much chance of coming true as either of those prognostications. Philadelphia may be done. Or the team may figure out how to play for a full 60 minutes (instead of the 45 minutes it seems to favor) and go on a run to the playoffs.

Things don’t look good for the latter. Philly is a full three games behind the NFC East-leading New York Giants and five teams — Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta and Tampa Bay — are in better position to win the conference’s two wild cards. Even finishing the year 7-1 may not be enough to guarantee a playoff spot. Two losses in the final eight games would make it nearly impossible.

The big picture view always makes it look more ominous, though. Break it down and an Eagles resurgence doesn’t seem as inconceivable.

Here’s the Giants remaining schedule: @SF, PHI, @NO, GB, @DAL, WAS, @NYJ, DAL. Other than the home game against the Redskins, there’s no easy win on that slate.

Philadelphia, on the other hand, has games remaining with Arizona, Seattle, Miami and Washington. Next week, they face the Cardinals, a 2-6 team with a backup quarterback, while New York flies west to play the 7-1 San Francisco 49ers. If Philly wins and the Giants lose, the Eagles will play at New York the following week. Win there and in 13 days Philly could be one game off the division lead.

Then they host New England on Thanksgiving weekend. A loss there would be devastating and likely signal the end of Philadelphia’s season, again and finally. Or is that “again and finally?”

Related: Michael Vick, Chicago Bears, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers

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The Philadelphia Eagles are not playing on Nov. 6, so fans like myself are killing time for the next 24+ hours. One way that I killed time is watching my other favorite team, the New York Jets, continue their own efforts to climb back into the NFL elite.

Like the Eagles, the Jets endured a rotten losing streak weeks ago that put their chances to finally get over the hump into question. Yet Philadelphia is trying to climb back up, although New York might already be there after it blew past the Buffalo Bills by 27-11.

The final score wasn’t even that close since the Jets should have won by a wider margin. They could have gotten a bigger cushion in the first half, as they kept the Bills offense off the field and had a few long drives. Unfortunately, one such drive was ended by an interception and the end of the first half was filled with turnovers from both teams.

The Jets dominated the first half in every avenue except the scoreboard, as they were only up by 3-0. But after letting the Bills hang around longer than they should have, things finally picked up in the second half as the New York offense got going. As for the defense, it actually looked like the kind of crushing, fearsome unit it was supposed to be all season.

Buffalo has had a high flying offense much of the year, as Philadelphia learned in its last loss on Oct. 9. Yet Ryan Fitzpatrick(notes), Fred Jackson(notes) and company hit a wall in the form of Rex Ryan’s crew – the kind of wall that the Jets haven’t built too well for most of the season. But for one game, New York looked solid on both sides of the ball and showed why it had such high preseason hopes to begin with.

The Jets and Eagles have both been peaking lately, although it’s too early to tell if it will last or if it is too little, too late. New York now has a window of opportunity to overtake the New England Patriots in the AFC East – and can take a bigger step by beating the Patriots on Nov. 13 at home. But now that the Jets have won three straight after losing three in a row, are they due for another slump or can these winning ways last a while longer?

It would be nice for New York not to rise from the dead late in the year to make a Super Bowl run – and perhaps to get a home playoff game for once. It seemed like it would have to rise up the hard way again about a month ago, yet there might be some room for these Jets to make it easier after all. Of course, it would be easier to do that if the Jets team that showed up in Buffalo sticks around more often.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

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That’s all for today.

Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.

Not much else going on in the NFL world today.

By Joel Thorman

– NFL Editor, SBNation.com

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Sep 2, 2011 – The 2011 NFL season is almost here which means it’s time to preview every team’s chances this year. SB Nation’s Bleeding Green Nation gives us the scoop on the Philadelphia Eagles. 

Record Prediction

This is an interesting year to write an Eagles preview because frankly, there’s not a lot that you don’t already know. The Eagles owned the news cycle during free agency, every media outlet on the planet seemed to write about Vince Young’s offhand “dream team” comment, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have written features on their salary cap wizardry, ESPN has evidently decided to dedicate the full sources of their entire empire to talk about Michael Vick for the past week… So it’s likely that even if you are outside of Philadelphia you’ve been inundated with Eagles coverage. Knowing that, let’s try to look at things other than the obvious. 

Many people asked “how can the Eagles afford all these guys” as they were cleaning up in free agency. The answer is also part of the concern for the Eagles this year. For one, it was definitely in part that their front office understands the cap and planned for this year probably better than any other team in the leauge. However, it wasn’t all cap credits and “likely to be earned incentives.” Part of the way the Eagles could afford all those free agents is the old fashion way, go cheap at certain positions. They’re going to be starting a rookie at middle linebacker (Casey Matthews), two rookies on the offensive line (Danny Watkins, Jason Kelce) and starting a number of young, cheap players at the safety and outside linebacker spots. 

So the Eagles head into the year kind of top heavy. They’ve got very good, proven defensive lineman and inexperienced linebackers. They’ve got the best corners in the NFL and young safeties. They’ve skill position players on offense that rival any team, but they’ve got two rookies starting on their offensive line. How the team manages to balance their high end talent with their youth and inexperience will ultimately be what decides how far they go this year.

Oh and one more thing…

Michael Vick, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy, Ronnie Brown, Jason Peters, Steve Smith, Asante Samuel, Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Trent Cole, Cullen Jenkins, Jason Babin. Yeah, they’re going to be pretty good and anything less than probably 11 wins and an NFC East title will be considered a huge disappointment. But of course, the expectations are that this team is talented enough to break the Eagles now 51 year championship drought.    

Best Game On The Schedule

The Eagles home opener, which doesn’t come until week three this year, against the Giants could certainly set the tone for the early part of the year. While week two in Atlanta is a tougher game, a win over the hated Giants in the home opener would certainly feel like a bigger victory. 

Breakout Player Candidates

The Eagles drafted S Kurt Coleman and LB Jamar Chaney in the 7th round of the 2010 draft. Both players ended up in starting roles late last year and played well. They now both enter 2011 as firmly entrenched starters who both had great preseasons and look to be the young, emerging leaders on the defense. Coleman did not miss a tackle last season and I’m not sure he’s missed one in preseason either. It’s interesting that the Eagles have invested two second rounders in the safety position in the last two drafts and so far Coleman has outplayed both.

Jamar Chaney was a guy that many didn’t understand how he fell to the 7th round. He was a standout at Mississippi State playing against top competition in the SEC. So to grab him in the 7th felt like a steal and so far seems like it was. Chaney is quick enough to be a plus in coverage, but still tough against the run. Last year he played middle linebacker thanks to injuries, but this year will be on the outside, which is where he played in college.

Best Player To Follow On Twitter

I’m going to say Jamar Chaney is the most fun Eagle to follow on twitter @Jamar51Chaney.

Read More: Michael Vick (QB – PHI), Vince Young (QB – PHI), Kurt Coleman (FS – PHI), Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants

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Greg Schulze looked around at the bleachers, fences and tents that make up the Philadelphia Eagles’ training camp base on Lehigh University’s Goodman Campus.

“Usually it takes us 15, 16 days to get this all up,” said Schulze, Lehigh’s director of athletic facilities and events/assistant athletic director. “This year we did it in eight.”

The summer of 2011 will be remembered around Lehigh as the year of doing things differently with the Eagles. With all the uncertainty surrounding the NFL lockout and when or if the Eagles would be making their annual flight north as they have every year since 1996, Lehigh and Eagles officials had to scramble to pull it off.

“We had to keep juggling things,” Schulze said. “We’d develop plans and then we’d have to totally revamp them. But when the dominoes started to fall we were in the right position.”

How well did Lehigh do?

Well enough that Schulze confirmed that the Eagles, very satisfied customers, will return in 2012. Well enough that one fan, John Granahan III of Green Lane, Pa., attending with his sons and his father, said, “I wouldn’t know what they could fix up any better.”

“Sure feels like they did a good job to me,” said Granahan’s father, also named John, who made two trips to Lehigh this summer and especially praised the team for the programs for children that his grandchildren, John, 11, and Sean, 9, enjoyed.

Well enough that rookie punter Chas Henry, who knows all about top-shelf facilities after kicking for Florida, said, “Everything was great up here. The security, the food, the dorms, everything was set up beautifully for us. I had a great experience up here.”

And well enough that coach Andy Reid saluted Schulze and his crew.

“I’d like to thank the people at Lehigh for the great job that they did,” he said. “Every year I say this, and it seems that every year they take it up another notch. They do a phenomenal job with their hospitality and working with us. We’ve had rain the past few days and working with us with their sports teams using the indoor facility. Again, just thank you to all of them.”

Sounds like Schulze and the Lehigh crew did just fine — but while everyone else enjoyed the setup, Schulze’s people paid a price.

“A lot longer days,” said Shulze assistant, Allen Biddinger. “Our phones were never off. You’d get calls late Friday for something they needed Saturday morning, text messages. There was a lot of communication back and forth. We used a lot more people and a lot more overtime.”

The needs of Schulze’s staff included obvious categories — groundskeepers and security — plus some less likely employees.

“Locksmiths,” said Biddinger, pointing to the A. Haigh Cundey Varsity House. “That whole building gets re-keyed for the Eagles and after.”

Schulze and his staff caught a slight break when the Eagles broke camp a day early, but the process of cleaning up and shutting down the Eagles camp leads directly into getting the campus ready for the Mountain Hawks’ own fall teams, all of whom are practicing already.

“It will take two days to take this all down,” said Jason Gall, another of Schulze’s assistants. “But that’s 40-50 people working straight through.”

There’s cleaning and scrubbing to be done — “tougher this year with all the mud and rain,” Schulze said — and taking the tents down can take a week as they need to dry out and be treated with care.

So is it worth it?

“I think so,” Schulze said. “The Eagles help us with the fields, which helps all of our teams. But also it provides Lehigh an opportunity to demonstrate that the whole Lehigh Valley is part of the Philadelphia area, one big megapolis, so to speak, that we’re not far away, ‘over the mountain.’ The Eagles provide a showcase for the Lehigh Valley.”

Maybe the best way to tell that Lehigh’s efforts pay off is to see the joy and delight on the faces of children like the Granahans.

“I liked it best when I got to shake my favorite player’s hand, Michael Vick,” Sean said.

That’s worth any number of days assembling bleachers and tents.

What are your opinions.