Down Time

It's the worst part of the year for a football fan--the roughly seven weeks between now and when training camp starts. It's even worse than that other pigskin desert, the period between the end of the Super Bowl and the draft, because there's at least some free agent activity and an awful lot of mock drafts to keep you occupied. But while you can't expect daily posts here, there's not a complete lack of things to talk about--yet. I'll try to spread posts out so there's regular activity here for at least the next week or two. If things get really desperate, I may have to start talking about the Phillies--at least there's a chance this year that two Philly sports teams will be lying for our attention come August.

Anyway, the news today is that the Birds signed fourth-round draft pick Todd Herremans, the offensive tackle prospect out of Saginew Valley State. He joins seventh-round pick Keyonya Marshall as the two 2005 Eagles picks signed thus far. ESPN.com's Len Pasquerelli mentioned Herremans in his most recent "Tip Sheet" column:

"Herremans will take a little while to adjust to big-time competition, but there are a lot of teams that kicked themselves when the Eagles plucked him with the 126th overall selection."

While Herremans was definitely pegged as one of those last-minute flying-up-the-board sleepers in the draft, the odds are against him becoming a starting left tackle in the NFL. In fact, Pasquerelli's colleague John Clayton did an analysis a few weeks ago (click here) that found that 27 of the league's starting left tackles were selected in the first three rounds of the draft. But if an organization is going to get a lower-round pick to start at LT, it may be the Eagles. After all, Artis Hicks looked more than serviceable starting there for a couple of games in 2003, and he was working there at minicamps as Tre Thomas recovers from a blood clot in his leg.