It has been a very busy past several days for Eagles' General Manager Tom Heckert. Not only has he had to focus on how to cut the Eagles roster to 53 players, he's also had to monitor the roster cutdowns of every other team in the NFL to see what players have become available.
The Eagles pounced on one such player Sunday, grabbing defensive tackle Antonio Dixon after he was released by the Washington Redskins.
"He's a pretty good athlete, I think he's going to add a different dimension to what we already have (at defensive tackle)," Heckert said about the Dixon, who is 6-3, 322 pounds. "If we need someone to come in here and be a two-gapper, stop the run, I think he can do that for us."
Although Heckert and the rest of the Eagles personnel staff were excited about the signing of Dixon, they were sorry to part with quarterback A.J. Feeley.
"We liked A.J.," Heckert said. "We thought long and hard about keeping four quarterbacks.
"There were teams interested (in acquiring Feeley), and we talked to a lot of teams, but we felt like we owed it to A.J. to let him go out there and look for a job rather than stringing him along too long."
Heckert is also happy with the composition of the team's practice squad. The practice squad includes only one player who was not with the Eagles through the preseason, middle linebacker J. Leman who was released on Saturday by the Carolina Panthers.
"He's a middle linebacker right now," Heckert said. "He's a physical guy, came out of Illinois, three-and-a-half-year starter (at Illinois). We think he's a tough, hard-nosed football player."
As for the other seven guys on the practice squad with previous Eagles ties, Heckert is looking forward to continuing their development.
"Obviously, we've invested a lot of time in a lot of these guys," he said. "Any time you can get those guys back and develop them, you're happy about it."
The job of forming the roster is not yet done for Heckert though, as there is still a lot of action going on across the league.
"There were some guys claimed, so those teams are going to make more cuts," Heckert said. "So there are going to be a few more guys out there today. So we'll take a look at the waiver wire and see what's out there."
-- Posted by Bo Wulf, 12:02 p.m., September 7
