It was nice breezy day at Lehigh and some cloud cover provided relief from what would have been the oppressive heat. A crowd of over 6,000 showed up on a Sunday to watch the second to last day of live hitting at camp. Later on, considerably less people stuck around for the special teams session...

Brian Westbrook returned from the viral illness that held him out of the previous days practice. He didn't take a ton of reps, but the previous reports from camp have said that Westbrook hasn't been taking a lot of reps period. When he caught his first pass the crowd a cheered and one guy yelled "Andy, give him his money!" drawing laughs from the stands and the sidelines.

After the jump catch my full report and observations

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Donovan McNabb held his first press conference of training camp and nearly every member of the local media wrote about it... #5 was his typical optimitic self

"A lot of people have picked us to win the NFC and rightfully so," McNabb said. "It's not that hard to see the type of team we have. You don't win NFC East

championships, or you don't win the NFC, period, on paper. You put it out on the field. And our team hasn't changed that much where we can't win the NFC again. We've beaten our teams in the NFC; now we just have to do it twice for each team."

It's always good to hear a confident McNabb, but John Smallwood reminds us just how long it's been since Donovan has actually played a playoff game.

Should the Eagles qualify for the playoffs this season, and McNabb is healthy enough, the game that will be played in January 2009 will mark almost 4 calendar years since his last postseason appearance.

McNabb was asked about the Westbrook station and decided to take the Sgt Schultz tact...

"I didn't hear about the whole situation until pretty much the day before I got here," McNabb said. "That part is none of my business."

Speaking of Westbrook, Pro Football Talk says they have a source with knowledge of the Westbrook contract situation and ha some disturbing news about what his demands might be...

Per a league source, Brian Westbrook is looking for a new deal that pays him $30 million over the first three years.

We’re told that Westbrook picked his new agent, Todd France, based on the fact that France was the only one who would guarantee that he could get Westbrook a certain level of compensation.

Per a league source, multiple other agents withdrew from the running once it became clear that Westbrook was treating the process like a hand of high-stakes Texas Hold ‘Em.

No team, the Eagles or otherwise are giving Westbrook that kind of money... I hope this is just a negotiation, because if he's firm on that demand this could go bad fast. That said, the feeling around most of the local media is that the Eagles are very motivated to get a deal done with Westbrook. With his new agent, who also represents Omar Gaither, also motivated hopefully something will be worked out by opening day. Either way it seems very unlikely that Westbrook will not report to camp.

It could be the Eagles says ESPN's Matt Mosley.. .

I realize the Jacksonville Jaguars would be the logical choice if you have them ranked behind the Colts in the AFC South, but let's go with something a little less obvious. The Eagles' season was doomed from the start last season because of the uncertainty of how starting quarterback Donovan McNabb would respond from ACL surgery and because of the family issues that plagued head coach Andy Reid.

But something funny happened over the last month of the season. The Eagles could have packed it in, but instead they started playing their best football. They should automatically be better on defense with the addition of All-Pro cornerback Asante Samuel. And the release of veteran Takeo Spikes will actually make them more athletic. Jeremiah Trotter's replacement, Omar Gaither, grew into his role as the season went on and I think he'll be a much more consistent player.

He goes on to talk about some more reasons why it could happen... It makes total sense, but then again it probably would make sense about several teams in the NFC. I'm just not convinced that anyone in the NFC is really head and shoulders above the pack.

The Saints look like they were primed for a real run and they fell flat last year. The Bears go the superbowl and fall flat. Those were the two teams in the NFC Title game in 06... I have no doubt that the same thing could happen again with a number of NFC teams that made the postseason in 07. Dallas has looked like it was on a upswing the past couple years, but then they can't win a playoff game and are getting old at certain positions. The Packers have a big bounce back year and then Favre retires. Anyone want to bet Aaron Rodgers will lead them to another 13-3 record? The Seahawks have hung around... but do they scare anyone? Would they have made the playoffs if they weren't in the NFC West? The Giants won it all, so you'd have to say they're the class of the conference... but they were no more than a wildcard last year and an 8-8 team the previous year. How many experts do anyone think will pick the Giants to repeat? Either as conference or SB champs?

Any of these teams could turn out to be better than I think... but that's the point. There are no Patriots or Colts in the NFC. There's a lot of mediocrity parity.