PHILADELPHIA -- Five observations on the 2003 Philadelphia Eagles, gleaned from an Aug. 16 preseason game at Pittsburgh and two Aug. 20 training camp practices:

	Duce Staley rushed for 1,029 yards last season and scored eight touchdowns.

1. Despite rumors of Duce Staley's demise here, coach Andy Reid was adamant between Wednesday practices that he definitely wants the team's leading rusher from 2002 back for this season. But nothing with Staley is going to be resolved -- whether it is playing under his existing contract, landing the extension he wants, or being traded to a tailback-needy team like the Chicago Bears -- until he ends his holdout and reports back to work. And when that will be, no one around here knows, nor will they even privately speculate. The suspicion here is that Staley's agent, Derrick Harrison, has counseled his client to report but that Staley is calling all the shots and making his own decisions. And, most people around the league feel, making them badly. Staley is a nice back, a player who fits in well with the Philadelphia offense, but he is not among the top 10 runners in the league yet is still scheduled to earn a base salary of $2.2 million for this season. Because he is such a good West Coast-style back, and catches the ball so well, Staley might even be a better fit here than with most other teams. But if he is traded, it likely will not be to a franchise that possesses the kind of Super Bowl potential that the Eagles currently have. So can the Reid-designed offense succeed minus Staley? Assuming that second-year veteran Brian Westbrook is healthy, and he was back doing light drills on Wednesday morning after missing some time with a bruised knee, it appears the Philadelphia backfield can get by. Third-year veteran Correll Buckhalter, who might have ousted Staley from the starting job a year ago had he not torn up his left knee in mini-camp, looks confident and capable. Reid made the point that Buckhalter really benefited from the three weeks of practice he got late in 2002, before the Eagles wrote him off for the year. Because the team placed him on the physically unable to perform list at the outset of camp, and not on injured reserve, it meant Buckhalter could participate in November practices. By the end of the third week, Reid pointed out, it was obvious that Buckhalter wouldn't return in '02. But it was equally obvious he had mentally moved beyond the injury and had enough confidence in the surgically repaired knee to start to make hard cuts on it again. To this point, at least, Buckhalter seems prepared to assume the starting job. That said, it should be noted there isn't a tailback on the roster, as long as Staley is out of camp, with more than 129 rushes in a season or with more than one full season on the field. If the Staley holdout continues, Philadelphia might be shopping for a veteran backup in another week or two. Here is one young name to watch: Reno Mahe, a former wide receiver at Brigham Young, and an undrafted free agent rookie who might have an outside shot to make the roster. Mahe was informed when he stepped off the plane for camp, by Reid's son no less, that he was being moved from wide receiver to tailback. He didn't blink then and hasn't since. One more item about the offense: The light seems to have gone on above the head of third-year wide receiver Freddie Mitchell, the former first-round pick who had just 33 catches in his first two seasons. Mitchell and rookie Billy McMullen, a third-rounder, look awfully good. That's a big step up for Mitchell, who has in the past looked awful, period. The pair might be good enough to keep the Eagles from having to place an emergency call to free agent Antonio Freeman, the club's slot receiver in 2002.

2. This remains, in many ways, a model organization. Some of the locals disagree and, when you have to deal with a franchise only a few times per season, maybe you don't always see the warts. But from our perspective, the Eagles are well-coached, and well-operated, and management has created a situation in which the window for winning a Super Bowl title (or even titles) should remain open for several more seasons. Only one positional starter, cornerback Troy Vincent, has more than 10 years of experience. While it is certainly a veteran outfit, the mix is a nice one, with 10 starters having less than five years of league experience. There is a solid core of players in the key four- to seven-year categories of experience, and those are the performers around whom championships are typically built. Quarterback Donovan McNabb is still just 26 years old, but he has 48 regular-season starts on his resume, and has already appeared in two conference title games. Fifteen starters are signed through at least the 2005 seasons. Coordinators Brad Childress (offense) and Jim Johnson (defense), both of whom signed recent contract extensions that deservedly catapult them near the top of the tax bracket in their spots, are top-shelf. Typical of the crafty manner in which team president Joe Banner has handled the salary cap, signing "core" players to extensions long before their contracts expire and free agency tempts them, the Eagles signed emerging wide receiver Todd Pinkston to an extension last week. For the larger part, it seems, most of the puzzle pieces are in place. But there arrives a point where teams have to stop aspiring to be champions, and must reach that goal, and for the Eagles that time is now. Fans don't care, for instance, that the Eagles are $10.44 million under the cap, as they currently are, if a championship doesn't result from the clever and creative manipulation of the spending limit. They'll take a Vince Lombardi Trophy any day over all the rhetoric about fiscal responsibility. That's not to demean the manner in which the Eagles are run because, the reality is, they are the best-positioned of all the Super Bowl contenders to remain contenders for a while. And few deals have blown up on Banner, who is very careful in dealing with older veterans, or investing too heavily in players beginning to decline. But there is unfinished business here and it must eventually be consummated for Philadelphia to be satisfied. "We don't talk about it," said safety Brian Dawkins, "because we all know how it is anyway. Just because we're not public about it doesn't mean we're not aware of it. Getting to another NFL championship game isn't good enough. If we don't take the next step up, then it means a step backwards for us, and we just can't have that." There's no doubt Philly is one of the top two or three teams we have seen on the training camp tour. But they were the past two seasons as well. What will count more is being good in the playoffs.

3. There are people in the league who contend that left offensive tackle Tra Thomas had a deplorable season in 2003 and still made his first Pro Bowl appearance. Some of the same pundits have also suggested right tackle Jon Runyan, one of the first really high-profile free agent additions under the current regime, is pretty overrated. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, of course, but it's hard to quibble with the overall consistency of the Eagles' offensive line in the past few seasons. It really is a unit that is taken for granted and, truth is, that should be viewed as a positive. Could the Philadelphia offense, which statistically ranked 10th in the league in 2002, be more productive and efficient? Probably so, and there is room for improvement, even with McNabb, who still isn't as polished in terms of the short ball and overall accuracy as he should be at this point. But little of that has to do with the offensive line, a very solid unit, one that many teams would like to have. Philadelphia surrendered 36 sacks in 2002, around the middle of the league, but that number would have been reduced if McNabb had started for the whole season. The Eagles averaged 4.5 yards per rush, eighth-best in the NFL and nearly one-third of a yard better than the league norm. In tackles Thomas, Runyan, guards John Welbourn and Jermane Mayberry, and Horatio Alger-type center Hank Fraley, the line is among the top one-third of the league. Fraley is an especially great story, a former free agent from Robert Morris College, who was released by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was an afterthought pickup who has made himself a good player. This heads-up to the critics, some of whose points about tackles bear some merit: Thomas and Runyan appear to be a lot leaner this season, better conditioned, perhaps more motivated.

4. The 2002 draft gambit, in which the Eagles selected defensive backs with each of their first three choices, seems to be paying off. Cornerback Lito Sheppard (No 1) has earned the "nickel" job and arguably is the most improved of Philadelphia's younger veterans. Strong safety Michael Lewis (No. 2a) is the new starter at the position, taking over for the departed Blaine Bishop, and taking on the responsibility of calling the secondary check-offs. Corner Sheldon Brown (No. 2b) plays the "dime" package. Why is this significant? Both starting cornerbacks, Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor, are entering the final season of their respective contracts and can be eligible for unrestricted free agency in the spring. Vincent is 32 years old and Taylor is 29. Even the incomparable Brian Dawkins, at free safety, will be 30 in mid-October. This offseason, he signed a contract extension that binds him to the Eagles for seven years, but realistically it's for only three of four more seasons. Good teams look down the road, and plot the future, and the Eagles draft of '02 was all about doing just that. The current secondary, one of the best in the NFL for a lot of years, won't be together much longer. But now there are viable replacements, guys who will be ready to step in once the veterans step aside, and who should play well. Lewis is a key, not just because he calls the signals in the back end of the defense, but because the strong safety position in coordinator Jim Johnson's scheme is alternately a blitzer and the last defender in the deep zone. The coaches really like his football smarts and grasp of what is a very complicated design. But the guy getting rave reviews, and deservedly so in our limited exposure to the Eagles, is Sheppard. The former Florida standout started zero games as a rookie, was inactive for four contests, and made nary a ripple on the field. But he has been terrific this summer on coverage and in the return game and has demonstrated a physical bent some outsiders might not have known that he possessed. "He's going to hit you," Reid said. "He's got no problems in that area." In the Wednesday morning practice, when the Eagles occasionally went "live" contact (a rarity at this juncture of most camps), Sheppard intercepted one pass and had his hands on at least three others. He's apt to become so important in time that special teams coach John Harbaugh may have to take him out of the return game.

	Kalu

5. Everyone here anticipates the team's defensive ends are going to be closely watched, given that the perception is the organization simply allowed Hugh Douglas to escape in free agency, without making much effort to keep him. We're not going to dwell on the reasons the Eagles opted not to re-sign Douglas, a player they might miss even more in the locker room than on the field, but the ends know they have to perform well or else bear the wrath of fans who aren't likely to soon forget the departed defensive star. To be honest, the ends ought to be scrutinized, given their history. The new starters, Derrick Burgess (left end) and N.D. Kalu (right), total six career starts. It should be mentioned that No. 3 end Brandon Whiting does have 45 starts. But the Burgess-Kalu tandem is going to be counted on to provide some of the pass rush heat that left when Douglas departed. In six seasons, Kalu has only 18½ sacks, and eight of those came in 2002. Of those eight, three were in one game and two in another. Bottom line: Kalu has at least a half-sack in only 17 of the 73 regular-season contests in which he has appeared. One might argue that last year, when he had his career-best eight sacks, was an aberration and that he is really the guy who averaged about two sacks the five years before that. The optimists here prefer the view that Kalu has refined his technique, is a late-bloomer, and will get double-digit sacks in 2003. Burgess is coming off a 2002 season that included two foot surgeries, and he tweaked the same foot again earlier this week, although the injury is said to be benign. The team drafted a pair of former Miami Hurricanes ends, Jerome McDougle (No. 1) and Jamaal Green (No. 4), but they might not get into the rotation until the second half of the season. It is a smallish group, with just Whiting checking in at more than 270 pounds, but Johnson doesn't seem concerned by the lack of bulk, because he wants his ends speedy. Keep an eye, though, on how Burgess and Kalu play early in the season because they are big keys here.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.