You can just hear the excitement in running back Mike Bell's voice. You can tell how anxious he is to get the pads back on as he carries around a football hoping to familiarize himself with it and make it an extension of his body instead of a foreign object.

Sidelined with a hamstring injury, Bell said that the decision will be up to head coach Andy Reid as to whether or not he plays Friday night in the preseason opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Either way, Bell said to expect a little more shimmy out of the 6-0, 225-pound back who rushed for 654 yards and scored five touchdowns last season with the Saints.

"I'm going to open up a part of my game that you I never have before," Bell said. "You don't always have to go head-up and make a lot of contact. You have to be smart, so I'm going to make people miss. Switch it up a little bit. I'm confident that I can do it all if I believe in myself. I'm going to steal some moves from Shady (McCoy)."

Instead of bemoan the injury, which happened as he caught a pass and ran down the sideline during practice on August 1, Bell has used the time off to reflect on his game.

"Sometimes it's good to do things that inconvenience you because it forces you to submit to the situation," Bell said. ""I had to and it allowed me to become more of an intelligent football player by watching more film and paying attention to the details. I feel that when I come back I'm going to be better than when I started. That's how I am because of my mentality. It's not going to be where it was at before, but I'm going to come back better."

The excitement for Bell stems from what he described as "a great situation" in Philadelphia. Bell is more determined than even despite winning a Super Bowl title last year.

-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 4:30 p.m., August 10