It’s always weird to go off the grid for a weekend and then reenter the world of the Eagles and the NFL. While I was out I see that Jay Cutler came out of retirement to sign with the Miami Dolphins. I also see that the Eagles had 36,000 fans attend their Open Practice on Sunday. Carson Wentz had an excellent workout throwing the ball well by all reports. Alshon Jeffery  finally returned after missing four days with an injured shoulder. Rookie running back Donnel Pumphrey (hamstring) and linebacker Mychal Kendricks (quad) came back as well.

Besides the feel-good moments surrounding the team, there were more complex undertones too as storylines are still evolving:

(Per Tim McManus of ESPN.com—)

“Wide receiver Jordan Matthews responded to the recent comments from NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, who said Nelson Agholor is “going to be their slot receiver. I’ll be shocked if he’s not. I don’t know what that means for Jordan Matthews.” Matthews said: “Football is so unpredictable. It’s so early in training camp. People make so many bold predictions. I make a bold prediction and it’s wrong, I get scrutinized. He might do it and it’s like, ‘OK, well his mock drafts are pretty bad every year.’ They’re terrible. Nobody in another field can be that wrong and keep their job.”

“On a related note: Agholor had an up-and-down day. He made some impressive catches but also had a couple of drops, including one in the back of the end zone after cleanly beating C.J. Smith. An otherwise supportive crowd let out a bit of a familiar groan.”

“It was an encouraging day for rookie wide receiver Shelton Gibson. The fifth-round pick out of West Virginia has had a hard time holding onto the football during camp to this point. Sunday, though, was a different story. He made a couple of difficult leaping catches, including a sprawling grab down the left sideline during one-on-ones. Several teammates ran over and chest-bumped him to offer encouragement. If he can show some of that in the preseason games, perhaps he can change his fortunes around.”

Anyway, we have some preseason football rapidly coming up, yep, it’s the Green Bay Packers’ preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night, August 10.

Don’t expect to see Aaron Rodgers, however. Rodgers sat out each of the Packers’ first two preseason games last year. His lone exhibition appearance came during the third week, when he led a touchdown drive against the San Francisco 49ers.

Amazingly but predictably, the football-starved Packers fans will produce a sell-out crowd at Lambeau Field for a preseason game.

Here’s the “official” depth chart for the Eagles which the league forces all NFL teams to put together prior to their first preseason meetings: