Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer expounds upon the Eagles’ kicking battle that he referenced several days ago. McLane writes that Alex Henery‘s “chip shot shank” on Thursday night against the Steelers has created a real quandary for the club. The Eagles released Henery’s first challenger this season, Carey Spear, and just acquired Cody Parkey via trade.
Parkey had been on the Colts’ roster–behind incumbent Adam Vinatieri–and was successful on attempts from 45 and 31 yards in the team’s second preseason contest. He was just 14 of 19 in his final season at Auburn University, and he missed a 33-yard try in the second quarter of the BCS Championship Game.
McLane writes that there are currently 12 teams with two kickers on their roster, and the free agent options include Rob Bironas, Rian Lindell, and long-time Eagle David Akers. However, at this point it appears that Philadelphia will wait and see what Henery and Parkey can do in practice this week and in the final preseason contest against the Jets.
Now for some more Eagles notes:
- Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that Matt Barkley will start the Eagles’ final preseason game on Thursday. The team feels secure with Mark Sanchez as the primary backup and would like to see a more extensive exhibition from Barkley. As Berman notes, unless Barkley performs so well that another team considers making a trade for him, or struggles to the extent that the Eagles would consider keeping G.J. Kinne instead, Barkely will enter the season as the team’s No. 3 signal-caller.
- In a separate piece, Berman offers a little more on the team’s first wave of roster cuts and adds a couple of injury notes.
- Sheil Kapadia of PhillyMag.com provides a position-by-position breakdown of the Eagles’ defensive performance against the Steelers.