Howie Roseman

PHOENIX - Andy Reid understands the importance of having a good quarterback. Fourteen years ago, he ignored the public pleas of Eagles fans to take running back Ricky Williams in the draft and selected Donovan McNabb. No, McNabb wasn't perfect. But he was good enough to help the Eagles make it to the NFC Championship Game five times in 11 seasons and earn six Pro Bowl invitations; good enough to finish his career with one of the best touchdowns-to-interceptions differentials (plus-117)

PHOENIX - Andy Reid appeared relaxed on the morning of his 55th birthday, clad in a Hawaiian shirt. The longtime Eagles coach, who now leads the Kansas City Chiefs, is enjoying a new life that includes quarterback Alex Smith, another heralded free-agent class, and the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. But he still holds a degree of affection for his former employer, which is one of the reasons he obliged when Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie asked Reid to talk to Chip Kelly while Kelly vacillated about replacing Reid.

PHOENIX - Jeffrey Lurie's presence at the Eagles private workout with top quarterback prospect Geno Smith last week was conspicuous because the team owner rarely takes part in such excursions. Lurie said Monday it was the first time he's attended a scouting trip since 1999, when the Eagles selected Donovan McNabb with the No. 2 overall pick. That is revealing for two reasons. It shows the importance of the Eagles' No. 4 overall pick, the earliest they've picked since nabbing McNabb.

PHOENIX - You could open up your hands and count the number of prospects the Eagles might draft with the No. 4 overall pick. Howie Roseman narrowed the number to a shorter list of candidates on Monday. "When you're at four it's a smaller pool of players that you're looking at with that pick. You're not looking at 10 players," Roseman said at the NFL owners meetings. "You're down at this point to six or seven names. " The ranking of top players will ebb and flow right up until the draft, and the Eagles board will be shrouded in secrecy, but the shallow waters Roseman and coach Chip Kelly will fish from should look like this: Brigham Young defensive end Ezekiel Ansah, Central Michigan tackle Eric Fisher, Florida defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, Texas A&M tackle Luke Joeckel, Oregon linebacker Dion Jordan, Alabama cornerback Dee Milliner, and West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith.

PHOENIX - Bring on the snow, the sleet, the howling wind, Jeffrey Lurie said on a brilliantly sunny, mid-80s day in Arizona, a light breeze ruffling his hair, as he stood in the shade on a covered outdoor corridor at the Arizona Biltmore hotel during a break in the NFL meetings. When asked whether he regretted his vote in favor of holding the NFL's first cold-weather, open-stadium Super Bowl next February in East Rutherford, N.J., Lurie said he did not. Then he obligingly took things a step further, for grateful Philadelphia reporters looking for a nice headline.

The Eagles are in the honeymoon period of free agency. Last week's shopping spree produced eight players, most of whom arrive at a ripe age, fill a targeted need, and appear to have signed at reasonable prices. Yet a signing cannot be properly assessed in March because the nature of the marriage between a free agent and a new team creates so many unknowns. "When you go into free agency, it's like an arranged marriage in some aspects because you've never lived with the person.

In Monday's print edition of the Daily News, offensive lineman Jake Long was listed as one of the marquee names available for the Eagles to sign. Long signed with the St. Louis Rams on Monday. This article has been updated to reflect that news. PHOENIX - The Eagles didn't come to the NFL meetings, which began to stir to life Sunday, with any urgent business to transact. They signed eight free agents in a flurry last week. They're monitoring the market now, but aren't waiting by the phone for any destiny-altering decisions.

When he looked at the team he inherited from Ray Rhodes in 1999, Andy Reid was appalled by the lack of talent on the offensive side of the ball. "The cupboard was bare," he said a few years later, after restocking well enough to make the Eagles a perennial playoff team. Lo these many years later, Chip Kelly has begun trying to rebuild the team he inherited from Reid. This time, the cupboard was bare on the defensive side, and Kelly has already gone about addressing that. That first offseason, Reid simply had to add inventory: wide receivers Torrance Small and Charles Johnson, offensive linemen Lonnie Palelei and Jeff Dellenbach, tight end Luther Broughton, and stopgap quarterback Doug Pederson.

The Eagles continued to address their defense and the expected switch to a hybrid 3-4 scheme Thursday when they signed outside linebacker Connor Barwin, cornerback Cary Williams, and safety Kenny Phillips. Of the eight free agents the team has signed, seven are defensive players. The players have much more in common. For the most part, they're young, either coming off an injury or a down season, and come from winning organizations. "We talked about the kind of guys we wanted to bring in," Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said.