Rocca's competition recently got a little bit thinner.


For all the change that has taken place for the Eagles over the offseason, one of the most surprising parts of it might be where they haven't changed as punter Sav Rocca appears set to maintain his starting spot in 2010.

The Eagles signed Durant Brooks, a former Ray Guy award winner and sixth-round draft pick of the Washington Redskins to potentially compete with Rocca, but released him on Tuesday as they clearly were not happy with what they were seeing.

The writing seemed to be on the wall for Brooks ever since the Birds resigned kicker/punter Ken Parrish for the second offseason in a row.

Parrish was brought in last offseason to compete with Rocca, but wound up getting cut near the end of training camp in what appeared to be a numbers game more than anything. The guy can't kick field goals to save his life, but he's got a good leg on kickoffs and was a much more consistent punter than was Rocca.

However, whereas Rocca will have that 60-65 yard boot once or twice per game, Parrish could go his entire career and never hit over 50 yards. But at least with Parrish there would be very few of the 15-yard shanks.

The thought is that Parrish has a legitimate shot at pushing Rocca because then David Akers could be used purely as a field goal specialist, but that doesn't seem realistic. Parrish is a drop-off in talent as far as kickoffs go and will have to pick up his leg strength if he wants to push Rocca.

It's going to be an uphill battle for Parrish, however, as Rocca's development is probably a big reason why Bobby April was brought in. Andy Reid must believe that April's presence will finally turn Rocca into a consistent big-leg punter rather than one of the most frustrating players on this entire roster.

Parrish could stick with another team looking for a punter and a kickoff specialist, but it's probably not going to be with Philadelphia.