Injuries could put Daniel Te'o-Nesheim on the field.


For Week 6, the Eagles' inactives due to injury are Jason Peters, Brodrick Bunkley, Riley Cooper, and Michael Vick (3rd QB). The rest include Clay Harbor, Trevard Lindley, Keenan Clayton and the newly-acquired Jerome Harrison.

But that's not the intriguing part. Most of those guys have either been inactive all season long or were expected to be inactive this week due to injury. The interesting part is looking at who is active today and could see time because of the amount of guys injured for this week's game.

For instance, Joique Bell will see time because Harrison is inactive. Daniel Te'o-Nesheim will see time because of the injury to Bunkley, and Austin Howard -- the undrafted left tackle -- is dressed and ready to go should something happen to King Dunlap.

Bell is active for his first NFL game and immediately becomes the backup to LeSean McCoy.

Eldra Buckley is likely listed as the official backup, but the team clearly views him as a special teams player and will likely give Bell at least a handful of carries. We obviously haven't seen a whole lot of the kid, but Buffalo was ready to revolt when they heard he was on the move.

Of course, Buffalo hasn't exactly been a hot-bed of talent, but this Bell has to be a quick improvement over the Bell the Eagles had last week.

And don't be alarmed that Harrison is benched this week. It was unlikely that he would be able to pick up the offense in only a few days and have the coaching staff comfortable enough with him to put him on the field. Bell, on the other hand, has been learning the system for a few weeks now and should be good to go at this point.

Te'o-Nesheim, the Eagles' third-round pick, is also active for his first NFL game. He has been a monstrous disappointment to this point, but Andy Reid said he felt comfortable activating Te'o-Nesheim if the move was necessary, and obviously he wasn't kidding.

This is the move the Birds are making in lieu of promoting Jeff Owens from the practice squad or signing a veteran guy like Bunkley takes his time to recover. It's likely Bunkley could be back next week, so this is the most logical step rather than making a bunch of roster moves just to bring in someone to play for a week or two.

Te'o-Nesheim was touted as the "Darren Howard" type of slash defensive lineman, so I guess we'll see that on full display. Te'o-Nesheim will likely kick inside on obvious passing downs and Antonio Dixon and Trevor Laws will rotate on other downs.

Expectations are high for this third-round pick, but to date he hasn't given anyone a reason to believe he's anything but another Bryan Smith.

Austin Howard (everyone should be seeing a theme here) will also be active for his very first NFL game. If these three guys aren't a testament to the youth movement in Philadelphia, I'm not sure what is.

Howard astounded me at Training Camp. He was running with the third team for a while and time after time he's man-handling guys from the first and second team. Everyone on the sidelines were forced to pull out their handy "Who Am I?" card and find out his name and where the hell he came from.

Play after play his form was great, his technique was good, and the power was obvious. He could control defensive tackles, end, or linebackers at will. He had a couple rookie moments, but they were definitely few and far between.

He was so good that a lot of people thought he should be the starter coming into Week 6. I'm not sure about that, I might be on board just because Dunlap makes me very nervous, but it shows what type of impact he made in the offseason.

While these guys are getting a great opportunity this week, it does show that there are a lot pieces missing for this team. Most of the injured guys are expected back next week, but getting through the NFC's best team (at this point) without some main pieces is going to be very difficult to say the least.

Well, we're about a half-hour from kickoff as I write this, so it's about time to continue jumping between pregame shows before the surround sound kicks on and the Eagles give my young heart its fifth heart attack of the season.
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Te'o-Nesheim has yet to be active for an NFL game.


The Eagles have announced their inactive players for the highly-anticipated Week 4 matchup against the Washington Redskins, and there aren't any surprises to report.

Mike Kafka (3rd quarterback), Keenan Clayton, Austin Howard, Antwan Barnes, Clay Harbor, Daniel Te'o-Nesheim, Joique Bell, and Trevard Lindley will all be watching this game in their street clothes.

The most surprising thing about these inactives is that Nick Cole is not among them. Cole missed practice Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but apparently will be ready to go today in a backup role at the very least.

Max Jean-Gilles took the reps as the starter at right guard, but it's unclear who will be the guy when the game kicks off.

Even though there are no surprises, there are a lot of disappointments. Te'o-Nesheim was supposed to be a guy the Birds could rely on to get a pass-rush from the outside and even bump down to defensive tackle. The third-round pick has yet to be active for a single game.

Barnes, a guy the Eagles traded for out of Baltimore, is also inactive and I don't exactly understand why. I thought he did a very good job of getting pressure when he played, but clearly the team has decided if Darryl Tapp is active, Barnes won't be and vice versa.

Also, it's interesting to note that all four of the Eagles' fourth round picks (Lindley, Kafka, Clayton, and Harbor) are all inactive. Kafka gets a pass because he's the third quarterback, but Lindley can't overtake a journeyman like Dimitri Patterson, Clayton is below the seventh-round pick Jamar Chaney, and Harbor was immediately overtaken by Garrett Mills.

All of these guys are projects to a certain extent, but it has to be disappointing for the team and the fans that all four fourth-round picks are watching from the sidelines.

For the Redskins, the key inactive is the fourth overall draft pick left tackle Trent Williams. With Williams inactive, Stephon Heyer will be the guy called upon to block Trent Cole, so Donovan McNabb will have to make sure to check his blindside from time to time.

It's also been announced that the Redskins' offense will be announced one player at a time. And, of course, McNabb will be announced last around 3:30PM EST. I'm thinking that wasn't done by accident, and this could be the most attention an introduction has ever received.
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Tapp has been a huge disappointment for the Eagles.


Kevin Kolb and Stewart Bradley are inactive due to injury. But Clay Harbor, Jorrick Calvin, Daniel Te'o-Nesheim, Keenan Clayton, Austin Howard, and Darryl Tapp are all healthy scratches.

Since it's clear why Kolb and Bradley aren't active, lets take a look at what being scratched means for those other six guys today and moving forward into the season.

Clay Harbor

Harbor being inactive could mean a few things. It doesn't necessarily have to be a knock on him as much as it is a compliment to Garrett Mills, a tight end/fullback the Eagles signed off their practice squad this week.

Or, it could mean the Birds don't fully trust Owen Scmitt at fullback quite yet and figure that keeping Mills active would then make more sense than Harbor because Mills can slide back and play a fullback/H-back type of role.

Harbor is still a guy the team really likes, and it seems like he just got caught in a numbers crunch. But, moving forward, he is still very much in their plans and will get his fair share of time as they try to mold him the same way they molded Brent Celek.

Jorrick Calvin

I complained about Calvin being active last week because they did not use him to return kicks or punts and just kept him on the sideline anyway. This just shows that Ellis Hobbs and DeSean Jackson are definitely the returners, so Calvin isn't much help to them.

Daniel Te'o-Nesheim

This is incredibly disappointing. TO, as he's lovingly being called, was a third-round pick expected to take over the "Darren Howard" role right away. But, instead, he's now spent his first two games inactive.

Just watching him in Training Camp and the preseason made me a bit nervous, but there was still the hope that the kid would be able to turn it around and save his rookie season. At this point, however, it's looking like it's going to be a wash.

He wasn't able to get pressure from the edge or up the middle in preseason, so barring an injury he'll stay on the inactive list all year.

Keenan Clayton

Clayton was inactive last week as well, so he's not having a great start to his rookie campaign, either. But one name that was inactive with him last week, Jamar Chaney, is active. So what does that mean for Clayton? Quite simply, it means they trust Chaney more as an emergency backup and like him better on special teams.

Considering Clayton was a fourth-round pick and Chaney was a seventh-round pick, the Birds probably would have liked that to be the other way around.

The Eagles knew Clayton, who played a safety/linebacker hybrid role for Oklahoma, would be a project, so there's no reason to be alarmed yet. They still view him as a guy with a great future once he really learns how to play linebacker.

Austin Howard

As an undrafted free agent, next to nothing was expected out of Howard, anyway. So this is far from a big deal. Every week he stays on the roster is just another win of him.

All this shows is that Andy Reid still trusts King Dunlap just a little bit more should something happen to Jason Peters or Winston Justice. Smart money says that is only going to last through this season at the most.

Darryl Tapp

This is by far the most disappointing guy on the team. Tapp cost the Birds a fourth-round pick and defensive end Chris Clemons, and the guy can't even hit the field. Say what you will about Clemons, but at least he was active on game day.

But like TO, Tapp has not shown that he can consistently get the pressure the team wants and needs out of him. Hopefully he's still just learning the defense and getting his feet under him and will be able to turn things around, but if he can't this is going to go down as one of the worst trades Reid has made.

I wasn't a fan of the trade when it went down as I thought the team gave up way too much, so hopefully Tapp proves me wrong in the long run.
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Te'o-Nesheim could see time at 3 different positions.


Yesterday, the Eagles announced the signing of former Washington defensive end and third-round draft choice Daniel Te'o-Nesheim to, as usual, a four-year deal.

Te'o-Nesheim played in every game of his college career at defensive end, and even holds the school record for career sacks with 30. With the Eagles, however, Te'o-Nesheim will likely see most of his playing time at defensive tackle in the nickel and obvious passing situations.

In other words, he is the new Darren Howard, but with more size and bulk. The added mass should allow him to be even more effective as a pass-rusher from the inside than Howard, but it remains to be seen whether or not Te'o-Nesheim will be able to run around NFL tackles.

But the good news for Te'o-Nesheim meant bad news for someone else as a roster spot would have to be cleared (unsigned rookies don't count toward the roster total, but once they sign on they're officially recognized as a member of the team).

That bad news came for former Arizona cornerback -- and undrafted rookie free agent -- Devin Ross.

Ross was the focus of a lot of "sleeper" talks, but clearly he didn't do enough to warrant keeping him around any longer. And with the lack of depth the Eagles are facing at cornerback, they must be saying something about what he did -- or didn't do -- during OTAs.

The Eagles still have three unsigned rookies -- Riley Cooper, Nate Allen, and Brandon Graham -- so someone else will have to get the boot in order for all of those guys to come on board. There's no word as to who that unlikely person might be, but odds are good it will be another undrafted rookie sent packing.
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Nate Allen was the Eagles' pick in the second round.


The Eagles came into Day Two of the draft knowing they needed to address the secondary, and they did just that by selecting USF free safety Nate Allen with the 37th overall pick.

The 37th pick is what the Eagles received as part of the deal that sent Donovan McNabb to the Washington Redskins, so they had better hope that Allen turns into a first-rate player. Allen will likely compete with Marlin Jackson for the starting spot at free safety, but Allen should be able to win the spot outright fairly early on.

"(Allen's) strengths are he has a great eye for the ball; ball hawk," Andy Reid said at his post-draft press conference. "He's a very, very good tackler. I think those are two important things when you are the last guy to the end zone. I feel very comfortable with him, he's very intelligent, he's got everything that we like here and we look forward to getting him in."

That's not even a knock on Jackson as much as it is a testament to how much the Eagles seem to love Allen. They feel he's the complete package, a ballhawk and a sure tackler, and would probably like to use Jackson as a depth guy at cornerback.

"I just know it's a good thing to get Marlin all the way back," Reid continued. "It gives us flexibility at the corner spot and it gives us flexibility at the safety spot. I just think it's good."

Allen is a good value at 37th overall, and should make an impact right off the bat.

Then, after trading out of the 55th selection three different times (from 55 to 59 to 71 to 86), the Eagles drafted Washington defensive end Daniel Te'o-Nesheim.

If you're not sure who that is, don't worry about it. I wasn't exactly sure either until I did some snooping and found a great highlight film on him. From what I can tell, he's an instinctive player who knows how to manipulate an offensive lineman.

Throughout the video you can see examples of him using the lineman's lack of foot-speed to his advantage as he is able to break their hands, disengage, and show an incredible burst around the outside, even chasing down running backs and quarterbacks with his 4.67 speed.

Te'o-Nesheim is 6'4, 265 pounds, and, according to Reid, he can play defensive end and be the third-down inside pass-rusher that Darren Howard used to be. I'm an opponent to the thought of taking the big tackles off the field on third down, but with Te'o-Nesheim it looks like the defense shouldn't lose any ability to play the run if need be.

"(Te'o-Nesheim) can also play defensive tackle, particularly on pass-rush situations although he did it both ways there. He was the career sack leader for the University of Washington. I believe he had 31 sacks. That's quite a statement in itself. He's very good against the run."

Mike Mayock of NFL Network -- the best amateur scout out there, hands down -- had Te'o-Nesheim listed as his top sleeper pick in this draft.

"A 4-3 end/outside linebacker," Mayock writes. "He's a hustle guy. A core special-teams guy. I think it's going to be difficult to cut him because he works so hard. He's a little quicker than people think. I think he's a good player and makes a team."

If that doesn't sound to you like Mayock believes Te'o-Nesheim was worth a third-round pick, you're right. Mayock has him slated to go between the sixth and seventh rounds, but, of course, it's possible the Eagles knew something that Mayock doesn't about what other teams might do.

It's a gutsy move by the Eagles, and the kid looks good on tape, so everyone just cross your fingers that we don't have another Bryan Smith or Chris Gocong on our hands.
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