As expected Donovan McNabb won't play in this year's first preseason game. Andy Reid made it official today. I have told you a number of times that he'll play in the 2nd and 3rd preseason games and that will be his tuneup for the regular season.
Reid started his comments about playing time by saying,"Those people who will not play in the game: [QB] Donovan [McNabb], [DT] Montae Reagor will not play, [DT] Ian Scott, [RG] Shawn Andrews, [FS Brian Dawkins] Dawk, [CB] Dustin Fox, [LB] Dedrick Roper, [WR] Bill Sampy, [CB] Lito Sheppard, and [TE] L.J. Smith will not play. We’ll see how they do for the next game. We have a short turnaround and we’ll be back on our turf, on grass. That also plays into some of the decisions here. The ones will play for approximately a quarter. So, at the quarterback position, [QB] A.J. Feeley will start off and play for a quarter. Then we’ll probably go a quarter with [QB Kelly] Holcomb, and a half with [QB Kevin] Kolb. Everything else, we’ll have to see how it goes from there. [WR] Jason Avant will be the third receiver initially to start off, but we have a flexibility between the other two guys, [WR] Hank [Baskett] and [WR] Greg [Lewis], to put them in at any time.”
According to Andy his decision to not play McNabb had nothing to do with him and all to do with the turf they would be playing on, “I really think he worked very well. He seems strong. I’d rather just start him off at our place, on grass, if possible.” He also said that this was part of the plan all along.
Here's the entire Reid News Conference which took place this morning.
“First I’d just like to thank the people here at Lehigh. What a great job they did. I mentioned it at the beginning of camp, that over the years they’ve done a fantastic job. Every year it seems to get a little bit better and I just appreciate their overall effort. The unsung heroes of the crew that work behind the scenes, putting the camp together with the Eagles did a heck of a job. Everything from security to marketing and so on, it was a very nice job. They set a new record for attendance, which is pretty impressive. We’ve had a lot of people show up here in years past, and to be able to say that in the short period of time we spent here is a compliment to the organization.
Those people who will not play in the game: [QB] Donovan [McNabb], [DT] Montae Reagor will not play, [DT] Ian Scott, [RG] Shawn Andrews, [FS Brian Dawkins] Dawk, [CB] Dustin Fox, [LB] Dedrick Roper, [WR] Bill Sampy, [CB] Lito Sheppard, and [TE] L.J. Smith will not play. We’ll see how they do for the next game. We have a short turnaround and we’ll be back on our turf, on grass. That also plays into some of the decisions here. The ones will play for approximately a quarter. So, at the quarterback position, [QB] A.J. Feeley will start off and play for a quarter. Then we’ll probably go a quarter with [QB Kelly] Holcomb, and a half with [QB Kevin] Kolb. Everything else, we’ll have to see how it goes from there. [WR] Jason Avant will be the third receiver initially to start off, but we have a flexibility between the other two guys, [WR] Hank [Baskett] and [WR] Greg [Lewis], to put them in at any time.”
On the rotation at right guard:
“We’ll start off with [G] Scott [Young], and then we’ve got [G] Max [Jean-Gilles] on deck, and we’ll see after that.”
On whether there was anything that McNabb wasn’t able to do in camp that prevents him from playing in the game:
“I really think he worked very well. He seems strong. I’d rather just start him off at our place, on grass, if possible.”
On whether it was the plan all the way along to not start him in this game:
“That was kind of the plan.”
On whether he is worried about Kolb having a tired arm:
“No, I’m not worried about it. He’ll go out and we have some good running backs too. So, we’ll mix it up. We’re not just going to have him go out there and wing it every play. We can give the young running backs the opportunity to run the football a little bit too. That’s the fun part about this first game; you get an opportunity to see these young kids play. You want to make sure you come out of the preseason knowing exactly what they can do. It’s kind of a fine line between getting the ones fine tuned, and making sure you evaluate the young players the best you can.”
On whether he got the work done that he wanted to during camp:
“I think we did, we got a lot of work done. You’re going to have injuries, I know you guys look at the injuries on other teams. It is the way it is. It’s the way it’s been since I’ve been here with our team. It happened, an it happens during training camp. We were lucky enough to get out of this thing without any long-term injury out of these two weeks out here, where a player has to sit out a year or so. Knock on wood, everything works out fine for the rest of camp.”
On the challenge of having another game on Friday:
“The ones will play a little bit more in that game. You’ll see the schedule. The players will take off Tuesday and then Wednesday they’ll be back. We’ll start getting into regular in-season mode. So, they’ll have a normal Friday practice with a couple plays added here and there. That type of format. Then, a mock game will follow that, and then you’re playing the following day. Really, you have one day of practice. Then the following week you get a whole week of practice. You get to go through a normal week leading up to the game with a couple of extra practices thrown in there.”
On whether Dawkins will play in the preseason at all:
“There’s a chance, yes. I think we’ll get him back. We’ll see how it goes with his recovery. He’s doing great right now, so we’ll just see how he does here in the next couple of weeks.”
On whether he worries about veterans not getting a lot of action in the preseason:
“If you’re practicing hard, and at the speed we do, I think you can [get ready for the season through practice]. I know it’s not as fast as a game, but it’s about as close as you can get. It at least gives the player an opportunity, if he’s going through the practices, to get his speed and timing down. Those guys that haven’t had a chance to practice, you’d like to get them back in practice and give them a shot at a game and get them caught up.”
On TE L.J. Smith and RG Shawn Andrews’ injury status:
“Both of them are doing very well; better than what we anticipated. We’ll see how they do over the weekend. They’ll stay in Philadelphia and receive rehab. We’ll see how they do with that.”
On how the young players looked:
“I think most of it went as expected. It was good to see some of the young guys step up and do what they did. That’s always the case. You look forward to seeing how they do in the live practices after you’ve been doing so much work in shorts.”
On whether there are any young players he wants to see playing with the ones:
“You’ll see [RB] Tony [Hunt] probably run with the ones a little bit if we get into goal line short-yardage situations, we’ll see how he fits into that package. [TE Brent] Celek, you’ll see him in there.”
On whether TE Matt Schobel will start:
“Schobel will start.”
On who has been the most consistent player at camp so far:
“You have all these veterans who have been very consistent. To pick one out, I probably couldn’t do that. They’re all striving for that. You’d probably have to give the nod to the veteran players who have been through it.”
On how he plans to rotate the young safeties:
“The best we can. We’re going to rotate them in there and see what we can do. Between nickel packages and regular packages, we’ll see if we can’t get them all a shot. We’d like to get everybody on the team in the game, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.”
