Todd Herremans

Evan Mathis is staying overnight in Baltimore, the Ravens are schmoozing the guard, and the Eagles can do nothing more than wait and hope. Welcome to free agency, or, as Howie Roseman called it, "a big boy sport. " The Eagles want Mathis back. But the question, as it often is in free agency, is how badly do they want to keep him? And that question will ultimately be answered in dollars and cents. Roseman was asked Thursday if the Eagles were prepared to do whatever it took to retain their starting left guard.

If LeSean McCoy doesn't receive a contract extension during the offseason, DeSean Jackson has advice for his teammate: Don't act like I did. "He has a lot of upside to himself, and hopefully he learned a lot through my situation," Jackson said yesterday. "Hopefully he doesn't go down the road I went through. I've talked to him a little bit about what I've been through and hopefully he'll be all right and won't have to go through what I went through. " Jackson made that comment after officially signing a new 5-year contract with the Eagles.

WITH DRAMATIC force, in the past 2 days the Eagles issued this message: We're this close. So, Andy Reid is not going anywhere. They won the last four games of the 2011 season. If not for a couple of injuries, or a couple of misplays, or a couple of other teams that won more games . . . man, they were right in the thick of it. The Birds locked up their most dynamic defensive player, Trent Cole, through 2017. They locked up their most dynamic offensive player, DeSean Jackson, through 2016.

JAMAAL JACKSON, the longest-tenured Eagle, had one question for the panel that was about to bid him farewell by phone on Comcast SportsNet's Daily News Live: "Y'all sure you're interviewing the right Jackson?" Jamaal started 72 games at center for the Birds between 2005 and 2010, but he knew the big news yesterday evening was not his release at age 31, after a year in Howard Mudd purgatory. The big news was the 5-year contract agreed to by wideout DeSean Jackson. It was that kind of day, a frenzy of Eagles developments, one quickly topping another, all of them involving players who were on the 2011 roster.

TIME DOES indeed fly, and it doesn't even have to pay airline baggage fees. Todd Herremans arrived in the fourth round of the 2005 draft, from that well-known cradle of NFL talent, Saginaw Valley State. He was a 6-6 offensive tackle who'd pushed around puny Division II defensive linemen, and whose arms were (gasp!) too short for him to play outside effectively, the people who know such things said. So Herremans became an extremely tall, angular guard, a solid offensive line regular starting in 2006, reliable, but fairly unremarkable.

On an NFL Tuesday that was supposed to be all about the new, the most revealing moment for the Eagles came when a familiar face, tackle Todd Herremans, talked about a contract extension that will keep him in the same place he has spent his entire career. "The Eagles have been known for a while as a team that doesn't take care of their draft picks and pays everyone else's as picks and players," Herremans said. "I think they're trying to change that stigma that they have. " Herremans wasn't trying to stir controversy - he repeatedly expressed gratitude toward the Eagles.

There was nothing sexy about it, but the Eagles took care of two of their own rather than being lured into signing the hottest players on the market on the first day of NFL free agency. Todd Herremans and Trent Cole received contract extensions as the Eagles devoted their attention to locking up and rewarding a few of their longtime loyalists. Last offseason, the Eagles were spendthrifts in free agency, and a few homegrown players privately grumbled about the team's allocation of funds.

Evan Mathis, who will become a free agent in a week, said he is willing to give the Eagles a hometown discount. "Of course, just throw me $20 and a pizza and I'm in," Mathis joked on Monday via e-mail. If only it were that easy. In reality, it will take considerably more if the Eagles hope to retain their starting left guard. Mathis, though, in an e-mail interview with The Inquirer, made it clear that he would prefer to stick with the team that helped resurrect his career.

Evan Mathis, who will become a free agent in a week, said he is willing to give the Eagles a hometown discount. "Of course, just throw me $20 and a pizza and I'm in," Mathis joked Monday via e-mail. If only it were that easy. In reality, it will take considerably more if the Eagles hope to retain their starting left guard. Mathis, though, in an e-mail interview with The Inquirer, made it clear that he would prefer to stick with the team that helped resurrect his career. "I'd like to return," Mathis said.

OK, POP QUIZ everyone. If the Eagles' defense succeeds in 2012, it will be because: A) New secondary coach Todd Bowles is really calling the shots; B) The star-studded secondary, the one gashed for one big play after another in the first 12 games of last season, will have a full training camp and a much better secondary coach; C) Casey Matthews will evolve into a premier NFL linebacker and/or the Eagles will acquire a proven elite linebacker and/or the Eagles will have a brilliant draft in which they address holes at middle linebacker and safety; D)