From the day he arrived in Philadelphia, acquired via trade from the Arizona Cardinals, Reggie Wells has not wavered from his desire to start. A starter for the last six seasons with the Cardinals, Wells has the versatility to play all five positions along the offensive line. Sunday afternoon in Jacksonville, he played right guard. A lot.
Wells entered the game in the second quarter for Nick Cole, the starter, and held the spot until the final whistle. Head coach Andy Reid said following the game that the reason for Wells' insertion was to rest Cole's knee, which had limited Cole in practice throughout the week. Still, it was an opportunity for Wells to show the coaching staff, in his first live action as an Eagle, what he can do.
"It's hard to think that it was only about a month ago that I was still in Arizona," Wells said after the game. "It was good to finally get in there and do something other than practice or playbook related.
"I'm not really used to coming off the bench like that, so that was a little different. But once you get out there for a few plays, it's just like old times. It felt good for the first time."
Wells said it did take him a little time to get adjusted, and he did commit a holding penalty on his first series.
"Any time that you don't start off the season and you're kind of behind the 8-ball," Wells said. "It's a different speed in preseason. So I knew that coming in, but once I did get my shot, I knew that there was going to be that sudden shock to the system. But once I got passed that, I thought everything was good."
Wells added that he felt comfortable working with his new teammates for the first time against an opposition.
"We worked well," he said. "Obviously there are some things that we'll look at and want to do better, but for the first time going live with this group under this system, we were able to do some good things."
Moving forward, Wells doesn't know exactly what his role will be. Perhaps he showed enough to stake a claim to the right guard job - Reid proved last week that he's willing to play the best player at each position, regardless of status - or perhaps he'll continue to be the first offensive lineman off the bench.
"I don't know," Wells said, "I've been patient with it until now and really just trying to stay ready for when my time came, and it came today. So, we'll see where it goes from here on out."
-- Posted by Bo Wulf, 9:00 a.m., September 27
