Corey Simon Retires

Former Colts defensive tackle Corey Simon retired from the NFL today after trying to resume his career with the Tennessee Titans.

He says practice and games started wearing on his body again.

Simon was sidelined by Indianapolis last year on the non-football illness/injury list and confirmed that he had dealt with polyarthritis in 2006. He signed with Tennessee on August 28th and played in 4 of the Titans' six games.

But he says recovering from each game and practice finally became too much.

The 30-year-old Simon says he tried to continue as long as he could, but the pain was telling his body it was time to leave football.

Simon was the sixth overall pick in the 2000 draft by Philadelphia. He played five seasons there and 13 games for Indianapolis in 2005, registering 32 career sacks and 312 tackles.

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Corey was once a premier talent in the league, but has not had a sack since leaving the Eagles. This is really a pretty sad ending for Corey.

Lurie Backs Reid

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and his NFL counterparts agreed Tuesday to shorten the first day of the college player draft to two rounds and the time between picks in the first round to 10 minutes.

The changes were made at the owners meeting in Center City.

Previously teams had 15 minutes to pick in the first round and the first day of the selection process consisted of three rounds.

The time between picks in the second round is seven minutes, and five minutes for the remaining rounds.

The draft also will begin at 3 p.m. instead of noon, with rounds 3-through-7 starting the following morning at 10. This year’s draft is April 26-27.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who has presided over much change in his short tenure, said in a statement that, “We believe this will make for a more streamlined and efficient draft.”

Lurie later reportedly gave embattled Eagles head coach Andy Reid a vote of confidence at the meetings.

..Read more at the DelCoTimes>>

Runyan Has Fractured Tail Bone

Reuben Frank, of PhillyBurbs.com, reports Philadelphia Eagles OT Jon Runyan (tailbone) said during his weekly radio show that he broke his tailbone when he slipped Thursday, Oct. 19. He is expected to play Week 8.

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Primetime: Eagles vs Bears

Reid gives bad Birds detention

A new horror flick made its big-screen debut Monday before a captive audience.

Eagles players, accustomed to getting the day after a game off unless they need treatment for an injury, were summoned to the team's South Philadelphia practice facility by coach Andy Reid for a team meeting and film review of their 19-16 loss to the Chicago Bears.

''There's a problem and we need to make sure we fix it,'' Reid said. ''I don't want it to sit another day or two. I want to make sure we get in so that the fellows can move on to [preparations for] Minnesota.

''I want them, No. 1, to look at the film and evaluate their mistakes. Then I want them to get it out of their minds fast and move on. We've got a good football team that we're going to play in Minnesota this week, and it's important that we learn from this and that we get it changed around quick.''

The extra day of mental work did not seem to surprise Eagles players.

..Read more from The Morning Call>>

Birds D Collapses In Final Minute

97 Friggin Yards:

The Eagles defense has been excellent this year. So when Sav Rocca pinned the Bears deep with a minute 52 seconds left, you would think they could be able to hold the Bears inept offense one last time.

Well if you saw this dreadful game, then you already know they didn't hold.

The Bears had no timeouts, and started off the drive by throwing short underneath passes. 11 yards to Clark, 9 to Peterson, 9 to Hester, and 9 more to Clark.

Then with the game on the line the Bears attack changed.

On a 3rd and 3 with only 49 ticks to go, Brian Griese Throws a strike to Bernard Berrian in stride. Berrian gets all the way to the Eagles 39 for a gain of 25 yards. The Bears quickly ran down the field, and spiked the ball. The next play was another big one for the Bears. Greise passed to Devin Hester for 21 more yards. Bears ran up to the 15 yard line, and spiked the ball again.

Then comes the dagger. Greise floated one up in the back of the end zone, and Muhsin Muhammad out jumped Sean Considine for the game winning touch down catch.

What a disaster. The Eagles were on their way to victory, and then in a blink of an eye they get sliced apart by Brian Griese.

I am still in shock. It is just unbelievable how this team finds ways to lose. One game it's the special teams, next it's the receivers, then the o-line breaks down, and now the defense breaks at the wrong time.

You would think you can get used to losing games like this being a Philadelphia sports fan, but you can't. It hurts just as bad every time. Another punch to the gut.

Redzone Woes:

The offense is not off the hook either in this game. They moved the ball well, but was again very poor in the redzone.

On the first drive of the game, the Eagles offense was methodically moving down the field. On a crucial 3rd and goal McNabb fired a bullet to Reggie Brown. Reggie dropped what would have been a touchdown. It was not the easiest catch, but that is a play Brown has to make.

There were two other possessions were McNabb just misfired on key plays. Both times missing tight end Matt Schobel badly. One would have been a touch down.

When they finally were able to get a red zone TD, McNabb celebrated like it was the first TD pass of his career. I guess it is big when you get your team has failed to score a touchdown in your last ten red zone trips.

These missed opportunities kept the Bears in the game. If you let a team hang around too long, they might get you. This Eagles were got. I have heard talk all week on how they are going to fix these mistakes, but they are still making them.

After the game Reid had this to say on the red zone inefficiency.

"We have to do better. When we have opportunities to catch the football and make throws and those types of things, we have to do them. We have to keep working as coaches on putting guys in better positions so that they can have success down there."

I'm tired of hearing we have to do better. Do better already!

Andy Reid should make the team come to work tomorrow. There should not be the usual two days off after this lousy performance. The mistakes need to be corrected now. Everybody is tired of hearing excuses.

At Least They Didn't Kick To Hester:

This was probably the most surprising thing to me. I know that Andy Reid tends to be very arrogant, and I was shocked that he would not kick it to Hester. It did give the Bears good field position, but it was the right decision. Hester did not have any returns in the game. Give a lot of credit to David Akers, Sav Rocca, and special teams coach Rory Segrest.

Every punt was a directional punt out of bounds, and every kickoff was a high short kick. They did what it took to not let the very dangerous Devin Hester get the ball.

Run the Ball Andy?:

When McNabb got hurt last year, Andy Reid changed the offense to feature Brian Westbrook. They ran the ball a lot, and it seemed to really be an efficient offense. Now that McNabb is back, Andy is up to his old pass happy ways.

With Donovan coming back from this injury, why does he insist on not running the ball more? It seems that as soon as Westbrook gets tackled for a loss, Reid abandons the run completely. Reporters constantly hammer him with these questions, but he always gives the standard "we have to do a better job there".

If he wants this team to win games, he has to revert back to a more run oriented scheme. It worked back in 2003 when the team struggled early, and it worked last season. Time to put plan B into effect, because this one is not working.

Lito Back. Still No BDawk:

It was great to see Lito back. He made some nice plays, and maybe misplayed a few, but it was still great to have him back. I am all for anything that gives Will James less playing time.

This stinger injury to Brian Dawkins must be an extremely. The Eagles are definitely treating it as such. Dawkins has now been out for over a month. Quintin Mikell has filled in admirably, but you would still like to see Dawk out there. He is a play maker, and this defense needs to make some more plays. Especially on the last drive of the game.

Big Hole Gets Bigger:

In case you haven't checked the standings, the Eagles are in last place in the NFC East. This loss drops the Birds to 2-4 on the year. To make matters worse, the Giants, Redskins, and Cowboys all won this week. This drops the Eagles three back of the Cowboys, and two back of the Redskins and Giants.

After last years miracle turn around, I hate to say a season is ever over, but things look very bleak for the Eagles. They have a lot of tough games left, and they have to really fix a lot of problems.

Is anybody looking forward to playing Dallas this year?

Primetime: Eagles vs Jets

Sheppard ready to return

Lito Sheppard can't say enough about the job the Eagles secondary has done in his absence.

And yet, when the sixth-year cornerback returns to the field, likely this Sunday against the 2-4 Bears at Lincoln Financial Field, he expects the defense to reach another plateau.

"They've been doing a great job making plays but now we've got another person who can also make plays back there," Sheppard said. "It's just a swagger thing.

"Once everybody gets in the mind frame that we've been playing well, now we can take it to the next level and start making some big plays."

The MCL sprain Sheppard suffered in Week 1 is all but healed, and he has been practicing with the first-team defense since Wednesday.

Sheppard is one of two Pro Bowlers -- along with free safety Brian Dawkins -- to have missed the last month or more with an injury, and yet 2-3 Philadelphia's patched-up defensive unit has been able to hold opponents to just one touchdown in the last 10 quarters and move up the NFL statistical rankings to seventh.

William James has filled in for Sheppard, with Joselio Hanson slipping into the rotation as the nickel corner and Quintin Mikell starting in place of Dawkins.

In addition, cornerback Sheldon Brown has stepped forward as the on-field leader of the defensive backs, making a game-clinching stop in the end zone in last Sunday's crucial victory over the Jets.

The Eagles defense, as it stood against New York, was one to be respected. Sheppard may represent the difference between respect and fear.

..Continue reading at the Courier Post>>

Smith suffers another setback

Another day at the NovaCare Complex, another setback for L.J. Smith.

Smith, who returned to action Sunday against the Jets after undergoing his second operation on his sports hernia, didn't practice yesterday after experiencing significant soreness in his groin area following the Jets game.

Paging Chad Lewis.

“Right now, he's sore,” head coach Andy Reid said. “We have to let that thing calm down and see how he does here in the next couple days.”

This season is turning into a nightmare for Smith, who caught 172 passes for 1,991 yards and 14 touchdowns in his first four NFL seasons but has been hobbled since April and has just five catches for 34 yards in limited action so far this fall.

..Continue reading at the Burlington Times>>

McNabb Still Confident

Donovan McNabb is the first to admit that in the first five games of the season, the Eagles have dug themselves a pretty big hole. Sitting at the bottom of the NFC East and having already dropped games to division rivals Washington and New York, some might say it is time to start thinking about the Wild Card.

Not McNabb.

"I think one thing that people tend to forget is - the NFC East championship comes through Philadelphia," he said yesterday. "We have to protect our territory and we have enough time to do that."

While the situation could undoubtedly be more favorable, McNabb fully believes that until someone officially knocks them off, the Eagles remain the kings of the NFC East. Yes, Dallas is 5-1, New York is 4-2 and Washington is 3-2, but McNabb feels as though if the Eagles take care of their business, anything can happen.

"I think at this point, it's hard to say where anybody is. You may start out 5-0 and you could tail off," McNabb said. "The Giants started 6-2 last year and then they kind of fell off. Nobody ever remembers September and October, they always remember November, December."

No matter how well the Eagles play, they will need some of their division rivals to - as McNabb put it - tail off. Dallas has been especially hot in the early going, and New York has won four in a row. Washington's defense has been one of the best of the league, ranking third.

In addition, all three have favorable matchups this weekend — Washington hosts injury-riddled Arizona, the Giants host sliding San Francisco and Dallas hosts inconsistent Minnesota — but McNabb stressed that unless Philadelphia remains focused on the task it hand, it will not matter what other teams do.

"We can't worry about what other teams are doing," he said. "We can only focus on what we need to do here."

McNabb is not necessarily a rah-rah type of motivator, and his strong words on Wednesday were encouraging to some of his teammates.

"We definitely know that if Don is all in, and with a statement like that, we're all in," wide receiver Jason Avant said. "We don't want to let him down in any kind of way. That's how he feels and that's the way we feel."

McNabb also said Wednesday that he thinks the offense specifically is getting closer to returning to the form it displayed in previous seasons. Still, even his teammates on the other side of the ball appreciate the vote of confidence and share his enthusiasm.

"It makes me feel really good. That's our man. That's our leader," safety Quintin Mikell said. "If he has that much confidence in that, it gives us that much confidence. I think we are on to the right track right now."

Some players also said that while McNabb's declaration is encouraging, the team never wavered in its belief even throughout the slow start.

"We had confidence already, we just need to go out and perform. It's obvious that victories aren't going to come easy. We have to go out and earn them," safety Sean Considine said. "It's a lot of hard work during the week so we can go out and hopefully perform well on Sundays."

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