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Donovan McNabb Andy Lyons/Getty Projected starting lineup Offense No. Player Pos. 81 Terrell Owens WR 87 Todd Pinkston WR 82 L.J. Smith TE 72 Tra Thomas LT 71 Jermane Mayberry LG 63 Hank Fraley C 73 Shawn Andrews RG 69 Jon Runyan RT 5 Donovan McNabb QB 48 Jon Ritchie FB 36 Brian Westbrook RB 2 David Akers K Defense No. Player Pos. 93 Jevon Kearse DE 90 Corey Simon DT 97 Darwin Walker DT 94 N.D. Kalu DE 54 Nate Wayne WLB 53 Mark Simoneau MLB 55 Dhani Jones SLB 26 Lito Sheppard CB 24 Sheldon Brown CB 32 Michael Lewis SS 20 Brian Dawkins FS 8 Dirk Johnson P 2004 Draft Rd. Player Pos. School 1 Shawn Andrews G/T Arkansas 3 Matt Ware CB UCLA 4 J.R. Reed S South Florida 4 Trey Darilek G Texas-El Paso 5 Thomas Tapeh FB Minnesota 6 Andy Hall QB Delaware 6 Dexter Wynn CB Colorado State 7 Adrien Clarke C/G Ohio State 7 Bruce Perry RB Maryland 7 Dominic Furio C UNLV Outside the Huddle Take a TO, baby It took a lot for Terrell Owens to wind up with the Eagles, beginning with some lighthearted recruiting at the Pro Bowl. Owens was denied free agency because of a technicality, traded to Baltimore and then, when he challenged the technicality before an arbitrator, finally traded to the Eagles. Sharpie sales skyrocketed in the Philly area. Kearsed The Eagles have had terrible luck with the health of their defensive linemen. Derrick Burgess has missed almost two full seasons with foot and Achilles injuries. Hollis Thomas, Paul Grasmanis and Jamaal Green all wound up on IR last year. So naturally, the Eagles' first offseason move was to sign Jevon Kearse, who has been slowed by serious injuries the last two years. Best of the Westbrook Brian Westbrook turned the Eagles' season around with a punt return for a TD against the Giants, and finished with 13 all-purpose touchdowns despite playing in a backfield rotation. Westbrook will be the No. 1 back this year. No questions asked. On the Pink A popular Internet game in the Philadelphia area this spring was "Pass to Pinky." Created to "honor" Todd Pinkston's performance in the NFC Championship Game loss to Carolina, the game allows the player to throw passes to Pinkston as he runs across the field. He never catches one. The fun is in hitting him, watching the ball bounce away, and listening to his excuses: "I lost focus on that play," "My hands are frozen" and so on. 2003 Revisited The Prophecy: "And so, for the second year in a row, the Eagles will begin the season with Super Bowl expectations." The Lie: " ... the Eagles have enough [defensive] ends to keep pressure coming from both sides." --Athlon Sports Pro Football 2003

Andy Reid has always said more with his actions than with words, and his approach to the Eagles' 2004 offseason screamed one message: It's time to win it all.

If there was pressure on Reid to get over the hump after three fruitless NFC Championship Game appearances, that pressure is now accompanied by some serious heat. The NFC East the Eagles have ruled for three years is now populated by Bill Parcells, Joe Gibbs and Tom Coughlin.

That explains why the 2004 Eagles will look and feel so much different from the teams that have fallen just short. In is Terrell Owens, the human TD celebration. Out are mainstays of the Eagles' renaissance such as Troy Vincent, Duce Staley, Bobby Taylor and Carlos Emmons.

"Not a lot of teams can say they have been to three NFC Championship Games, back-to-back-to-back," says quarterback Donovan McNabb. "The organization is still trying to find weapons to come in and give us that extra push that we need."

The addition of Owens gives McNabb the first true No. 1 wide receiver he's had in his career. In a sense, that puts a little more pressure on McNabb to deliver. "I don't have added pressure on my shoulders at all," says McNabb. "I just go out there with the attitude that I can make every play possible."

More plays might be possible with Owens than with James Thrash and Todd Pinkston as his starting wideouts. Last year, the Eagles' franchise player got off to a terrible start and the team followed suit. After the brouhaha over Rush Limbaugh's criticism of McNabb, the quarterback snapped out of his slump and led the Eagles to a 10–1 finish in the regular season.

Koy Detmer returns as McNabb's backup. Rookie Andy Hall will get a shot at replacing A.J. Feeley as the No. 3 man.

With the departure of Staley, the three-headed running back is down to two. As long as Brian Westbrook can stay healthy, that should be more than enough.

Westbrook emerged as a game-changer last season, averaging 5.2 yards per carry and scoring 13 touchdowns. A torn ligament suffered in the final regular-season game kept him sidelined in the playoffs.

Correll Buckhalter will return as the change-up back. Buckhalter averaged 4.3 yards and scored eight touchdowns on just 126 carries.

With the changes in the receiving corps and the development of tight end L.J. Smith, the Eagles are likely to use fullback Jon Ritchie even less than last year.

The big question is whether the outspoken Owens can find happiness with Reid's spread-the-ball offense -- and vice versa. "We're going to do what we always do with good football players," Reid says. "That's exploit their talents. If that means more balls go to Terrell, then that's what happens. That part doesn't change."

The Eagles haven't had a true No. 1 receiver since Irving Fryar had two 80-catch seasons in 1996-97.

Owens' presence should create space and opportunities for Pinkston and Freddie Mitchell, who emerged as a slot receiver last year. The Eagles also see second-year players Billy McMullen and Greg Lewis as potential contributors.

At tight end, Smith should be ready to slip ahead of veteran Chad Lewis, although both will be valuable weapons for McNabb.

The battering McNabb took in the postseason has Reid taking a hard look at an offensive line that has remained intact, except for injury-related changes, since 2001.

Tackles Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan are on notice. Artis Hicks, who is likely to start the season at guard, ably replaced the injured Thomas last season at Miami and shut down Jason Taylor. First-round pick Shawn Andrews could also start at guard but will almost certainly move out to tackle as his career develops.

Bobbie Williams, who started most of the season in place of injured right guard Jermane Mayberry, is gone via free agency. Left guard John Welbourn was traded to Kansas City after expressing unhappiness with his contract. The starting guards should emerge from the trio of Hicks, Mayberry and Andrews -- unless Reid pulls the trigger and uses one of them to replace a starting tackle.

If Reid was dissatisfied with his offensive line, he would have been disgusted with the production of his defensive line. N.D. Kalu led the defensive ends with a paltry 5 1/2 sacks, and the Eagles offered little resistance to opponents' running attacks all season.

The mitigating factor was injuries. Derrick Burgess, Hollis Thomas, Paul Grasmanis, Jamaal Green and Jerome McDougle missed time with serious injuries. All should be back.

Just to be on the safe side, the Eagles rushed into the free-agent market to sign Tennessee Pro Bowler Jevon Kearse. "The Freak" has battled injuries of his own, but the Eagles are convinced he can again be a dominating player. Kearse had 9 1/2 sacks in his first nine games of 2003. A high ankle sprain slowed him the rest of the way.

If nothing else, the Eagles hope sheer numbers will give them a much-improved front four. Ends Kearse, Burgess, McDougle, Kalu and Green should create a deep rotation. At tackle, Sam Rayburn was a pleasant surprise last year and should, along with Thomas and Grasmanis, create depth behind Corey Simon and Darwin Walker.

Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson raised eyebrows after the season when he said he had "no problem" with Mark Simoneau returning as his middle linebacker. The undersized Simoneau, named NFC Defensive Player of the Month back in October, seemed to wear down by the end of the season.

But the Eagles addressed the position in either free agency, bringing back Jeremiah Trotter. Nate Wayne, who was inconsistent at weak-side linebacker, also returns.

The only change in the starting unit will be on the strong side, where Dhani Jones signed on as the replacement for Carlos Emmons.

Vincent and Taylor, cornerbacks who played a combined 17 seasons in Philadelphia, are gone, changing the whole complexion of the Eagles' defense.

In the past, Johnson could count on the two corners to take receivers out of the game, thus allowing him to blitz and gamble on the front end. Now, with Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown manning the corners, Johnson will have to get pressure from his front four. He will also have to hope the shorter corners aren't as vulnerable to tall receivers as they were late in the 2003 season. That's one reason the Eagles took UCLA's 6-foot-2 Matt Ware in the third round of the draft.

The transition to the new era at corner should be smoother thanks to the return of Pro Bowler Brian Dawkins at free safety and the continued emergence of Michael Lewis as a star at strong safety.

Continuity is the word here. David Akers is one of the NFL's finest kickers -- second all-time to Indianapolis' Mike Vanderjagt in accuracy. Punter Dirk Johnson established himself as the successor to the eternal Sean Landeta.

The Eagles remain the team to beat in the NFC East for one reason -- McNabb. But there is a growing sense that is time for the quarterback to reach the Super Bowl or drop into that category of great players who couldn't win the big game.

McNabb knows it. "We've been the Super Bowl champions on paper the last two years," he says. "We haven't gotten there. It's a tough situation."

There was also a growing sense that the team as it was built had developed some kind of mental block about the conference championship game. Without changes, it would have been very difficult for the Eagles to get that far again without feeling as if they expected to fail. Now? They added Owens and Kearse, arguably the best offensive and defensive players available, to change the chemistry. They also said goodbye to some of the key players who got them this far.

The end result is a season of great unknown and greater expectation. The pressure is on.

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