Despite next Sunday's game against Atlanta coming nearly two weeks after the trade deadline, it seems as if the Eagles will be able to add a 1,000-yard receiver to their roster, after all.
This move, though, didn't cost draft picks or players. It just needed some time.
The 2007 season's top wideout, Kevin Curtis, took a full workload in practice Monday, almost two months to the day after his sports hernia surgery in late August. Should Curtis now progress as expected, he'll join a receiving corps that has buoyed itself surprisingly well through an ugly storm of injuries since the start of the season.
"Obviously, you can't substitute being in a game, playing in a game situation," Curtis said. "So it's going to be good to get out there playing again."
Curtis' presence adds another downfield threat to quarterback Donovan McNabb's arsenal, one that's finally being restocked. Despite DeSean Jackson and the other healthy receivers helping to cushion the absence of Curtis' 70 yards per game from a season ago, his presence can only help an offense struggling for some explosions.
Curtis said the toughest part of the transition will be running routes against a live defense for the first time since the Eagles' second preseason game. Joe Banner on Eagles Live!
"I'd love to rush it. I'd love to (play) as soon as possible," Curtis said. "But I don't want any setbacks, you know? It seems like there's a lot of (potential) setbacks with this injury. I don't think anyone knows (your) body as well as yourself."
But it's not just Curtis that's been hobbled. If Reggie Brown can get himself back onto the field again after missing Week 6's game in San Francisco with a groin injury, it will mean a complete corps for the first time since the preseason.
In the two games that Brown has received full reps, he's put up 169 yards on 10 catches. But Brown thinks his groin injury, which he suffered in practice prior to the 49ers contest, might have a correlation to the hamstring injury that sidelined him for the first two weeks of the season and severely limited him in the third.
Still, Brown said he did some running on Monday and felt "a lot better" in comparison to the day he sustained the injury.
"It's really frustrating. I'm kind of getting sick of it," Brown said. "I've got to stay positive and I can't get down on myself, because I'm sure that's not going to help me get better sooner."
So for an allegedly thin position, the Eagles are about to get pretty deep. But with Curtis returning and Jackson emerging as a legitimate threat, what's the offense going to look like?
"There's enough balls to go around," Brown said.
If so, it's about pooling the strengths to make a complete unit.
"We haven't been 'one' yet this year. And there's just so many weapons," said Hank Baskett, whose 245 yards and two touchdowns have already bested last season's totals. "You can never have too much of a good thing."
