Key lessons from my whirlwind tour around the NFL

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The last training camps closed over the weekend, and now teams are back in their permanent facilities. It's T-minus 10 days and counting until Miami travels to Pittsburgh in what is shaping up as a must-see showdown because of how good Daunte Culpepper has looked in the preseason.

And what a preseason it has been. Here are some notes and observations I picked up on the training-camp trail.

EAGLES (Bethlehem, Pa.): Here's what worries me about the Eagles: skill players. I have no idea if running back Brian Westbrook can stay healthy for a full year, and a trusted reserve just isn't here. Ryan Moats has fallen out of favor with the staff, Reno Mahe is just insurance, and how can you trust Correll Buckhalter after two straight knee surgeries? And the receivers? When everyone's raving about Hank Baskett, I know there's trouble on the horizon. Now, I like the depth on the offensive and defensive lines a lot. The Eagles are going to be a load on defense -- maybe not as good as Dallas, but I bet as good as Washington. But that offense worries me. There's the same hole here that existed before T.O. Outside of Westbrook, there's not another Philly back or wideout who even remotely scares any defensive coordinators out there. "We'll be fine,'' Andy Reid told me and the rest of the free world about a hundred times. That's what he always says. And sometimes the Eagles aren't.

BUCCANEERS (Orlando): I always wonder how the white kid with the silver spoon fits with the black players with no silver spoons. And whatever "it'' is, Chris Simms has "it.'' It's clear from talking to Joey Galloway, Ronde Barber, Cadillac Williams, Alex Smith and Derrick Brooks -- some of the conversations with the notebook tucked in my pocket, when the answers, presumably, will be a little more honest -- that Simms has done the thing that quarterbacks have to do to win the team. He works the locker room like a seasoned politician. He's the man. Galloway and Simms go to see the Devil Rays together. Simms throws with the lowest free agents, for hours, and then he plays basketball with them. He's a jock, a gym rat, a taller Flutie. "It comes natural to me,'' Simms told me. "I enjoy the guys. I enjoy the guys at all positions, not just the guys on offense. I try to hit every corner of the locker room, and I don't view it as a job, or anything I have to do. It's fun. I love hanging with the guys. I live for it.''

SAINTS (Jackson, Miss.): "The day I run onto that field at the Superdome for the first time ...'' Joe Horn said, and he paused for a moment. "I will have to gather myself for a minute. I know I'll have tears of sadness, tears of joy.'' The questions about the disaster on the Gulf Coast don't seem to bother these Saints, though clearly they've been answering them now for 11 months. Players always tire of the cliché questions. The reason these guys don't? Soon after Hurricane Katrina, Horn visited a shelter at the Astrodome and spoke with a father who had watched his son float away in the storm and die (he couldn't rescue him, and would have died trying). The man implored Horn and the Saints to go out and win for the city. "When that happens,'' Horn said, "what are you supposed to do? How can you not go out on the field and feel that? We'll all be feeling it, believe me.'' Atlanta's a better team, but I feel for them going into the dome on Sept. 25 for the first NFL game in New Orleans in 13 months. I can't see the Saints losing that night.