Birds of a feather

Just quick commentary about the Eagles and their seeming love of all former Duck players.

While I think that Maehl might be the one who sticks, keep in mind that Chip Kelly is trying to install a complicated offense in a place where what they are doing is completely foreign to the existing players.

Yes, I realize that, on some levels, the offense is not really complicated, but the tempo can be complicated as players try to read plays from the field.

In order to better facilitate the adoption of such a plan, it is imperative that the coach have players around who already know how everything in Chip Kelly's offense works. This is the reason he has guys like Will Murphy around.

Murphy showed a lot of heart as a walk-on and he is a tremendous locker room guy, and he may turn out to be a great pro receiver. Reality says, though, that many of the signings of former Ducks was about implementing a system.

There aren't 100 guys, about 30 of them "expendable," on an NFL roster. With the limited roster size, it becomes even more critical that there are some guys during training camp that can be like additional assistant coaches.

It is worth mentioning here that it is highly unlikely that the Eagles keep four quarterbacks on the 53 man roster. Unless the Eagles trade Nick Foles or Matt Barkley, that means that Dennis Dixon's tiem as an Eagle is probably limited as well.

Remember, the NFL is a business. Decisions are no longer about "feel good" stories; they are about business.