Todd Pinkston

Todd Pinkston is in the midst of one of his best seasons. Don't feel bad if you haven't noticed. "I haven't noticed, either," Pinkston said yesterday before the Eagles' practice at the NovaCare Complex. Through 12 games, Pinkston has caught 31 passes for 543 yards and one touchdown. At his current pace, he'll finish with 41 catches for 724 yards. During his best season two years ago, Pinkston caught 60 passes for 798 yards and seven touchdowns. "I think he'll end up with more yards this year," fellow receiver Greg Lewis said.

First everyone has to agree on the lingo. "When you scout a guy, you say he's wiry, not skinny," said Tom Modrak, the Eagles' director of football operations. So let's just say wide receiver Todd Pinkston is extremely wiry. Calista Flockhart skinny. The Eagles completed their two-part game plan for the draft by selecting Pinkston in the second round yesterday. The first half of the plan - plugging a huge hole on the defensive line - was accomplished in the first round, when they took defensive tackle Corey Simon of Florida State.

Some of the weekend's more intriguing and entertaining quips: "Hopefully, this year I can put my name out there and in three years you will see me in an Eagles uniform at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. " - First-round pick Corey Simon, defensive tackle, on his immediate goal. "You don't have the Wake Forests on your schedule. " - Simon, referring to the difference between the grind of the NFL compared to playing at Florida State. "Last night was the first night I got a good night's sleep in three months.

James Thrash isn't the first person to come awake in Seattle. Here, in America's coffee capital, the Eagles wide receiver, somnolent through the preseason and in Game 1, played like a man with caffeine in his water bottle. Thrash caught 10 passes for a career-high 165 yards and two touchdowns and, to the decaffeinated Seattle substitutes he tortured all afternoon, he must have resembled someone who spent the night in a Starbucks. "James is strong . . . and he's really quick," said Eagles coach Andy Reid after Philadelphia's 27-3 thrashing of the sleepy Seahawks.

One of the questions surrounding the Eagles all season has been whether they had the high-quality receivers necessary to win a championship. Those questions, no doubt, will be heard again, louder than ever, after the performance of those receivers last night. In the game when it mattered most, Todd Pinkston, the team's No. 1 wideout, did not catch a ball. And, to judge by Donovan McNabb's reaction, the receiver didn't finish one particular route that turned into one of the night's three interceptions by the Panthers' Ricky Manning.

James Thrash had to know when the Eagles acquired Terrell Owens that his days in Philadelphia were numbered. That number hits zero today. The Eagles have agreed to trade the veteran receiver to the Redskins in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2005 draft, according to a Redskins source. The deal cannot be completed until 4 p.m. today because the Redskins need to clear some space from their salary cap. Thrash, who will be 29 next month, has two years remaining on a five-year deal he signed with the Eagles in 2001.

Given the opportunity to return fire at Carolina Panthers rookie cornerback Ricky Manning Jr. yesterday, the Eagles' wide receivers declined. "I'll let him do all the talking and have his words," Todd Pinkston said. During a radio talk show Tuesday, Manning said, "I'm definitely not impressed by their receivers. " He also predicted a Carolina victory and said the Eagles did not see the Panthers' 'A' game when the teams met in Nov. 30 at Ericsson Stadium. The Eagles won the first game, 25-16.

This was not a play made for slow motion. To capture Todd Pinkston's I-better-catch-this-or-else reception, one needs to see it in real time. The effort in his windmilling arms and legs, stumbling like a slow jogger on a quick treadmill, is what made it memorable. Pinkston's 80-yard catch was nonetheless a beauty for the Eagles and his ego. Before that, Pinkston's repertoire for the night consisted of The Flinch and The Drop. He made up for those by pulling in a deep throw from quarterback Donovan McNabb to put the Eagles at Washington's 4-yard line to start the second quarter.

If Freddie Mitchell has learned the Eagles' offense as well as he has learned patience in the last six months, his future should be bright indeed. The Eagles' first-round draft pick bounded into town in April planning to be an NFL star. He still has those plans, but his time frame has been adjusted. After a long training camp and four regular-season games, Mitchell has one reception for zero yards. He's playing behind Todd Pinkston, who has blossomed into a big-play receiver. If Mitchell is not exactly content, he's certainly understanding about his status.

Todd Pinkston couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 years old when his dad took him to a Mississippi Valley State football game. "That's where my dad had played," Pinkston said. "I don't remember how old I was. I just remember the place, and I remember seeing Jerry Rice. " Dameane Douglas was in first grade. His school picture from that year shows him in a black-and-silver Raiders jersey. Douglas was drafted by the Raiders out of Cal and spent training camp soaking up everything Tim Brown had to teach him. "He's just a real professional," Douglas said.

TODD PINKSTON didn't know right away that he would never suit up for another NFL game, when he tore his right Achilles' tendon early in Eagles training camp, on Aug. 5, 2005. "I didn't know anything about it then," Pinkston, now a high school receivers' coach in Petal, Miss., said yesterday when a reporter phoned. Eagles safety Marlin Jackson ruptured an Achilles' at Tuesday's OTA, triggering memories of Pinkston's demise, which occurred as the wideout prepared for what would have been his sixth pro season.

LANDOVER, Md. - Who would have thought the key play in the Eagles' 33-25 victory yesterday over the Redskins might have been an injury to James Thrash on a kickoff return late in the fourth quarter. Yes, that James Thrash - the guy who infamously teamed with Todd Pinkston in Philadelphia for 3 seasons as the receiving duo disgustedly referred to by Bird fans as "Trash and Stinkston. " Applying his skills these days in the nation's capital, Thrash had set himself up as a highly unlikely hero by making five catches for 85 yards with two touchdowns.

ASHBURN, Va. - Preseason games once held little significance to Todd Pinkston. Like most veterans at the top of the depth chart, his primary goal was to get through them without breaking, tearing or spraining anything. But that was then, when he was a starting wide receiver for the Eagles, and this is now, when he is just another face in the crowd trying to win a spot on the Washington Redskins' roster. Now, the Redskins' game against the Baltimore Ravens tomorrow night at FedEx Field means everything to Pinkston.

Tom Heckert called it a good question even though he didn't have the exact answer. How long does it take to grade a team's draft? "Everybody says the rule of thumb is three years," the Eagles' vice president of player personnel said earlier this week. "Until a guy plays or fails, you can't really tell. " Many pundits, of course, will grade this weekend's draft Sunday night on Web sites and in Monday morning newspapers. A better story might be grading the "experts" three years from now. Anyway, most of Andy Reid's drafts can be fairly graded.

Proof that the Eagles can win without Terrell Owens as their No. 1 receiver and with Todd Pinkston in that role does exist. Before you object and attempt to present all the recent negative evidence that has circulated on the Internet and in the highlight reels, please read on. Flash back to one year ago yesterday. The Eagles, without Owens and without Brian Westbrook, found themselves down by 14-0 after one quarter against the Green Bay Packers in an NFC divisional playoff game at Lincoln Financial Field.

Greg Lewis says he will wear earplugs in the NFL playoffs. That's because Lewis has heard enough of the criticism leveled at Eagles receivers. If indeed the numbers don't lie, then the non-T.O. faction of the receiving corps has something to prove during the postseason. This season, the Eagles threw 32 touchdown passes, 17 of them to wide receivers. But only three of those 17 went to receivers not named Terrell Owens. Freddie Mitchell had two TDs, including a late score in the 38-10 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday.

It remains to be seen how opposing teams will cover the Eagles' passing attack now that Terrell Owens is a cheerleader without the pom-poms or the ability to burn cornerbacks. We can tell you that the Eagles' remaining receivers, particularly Todd Pinkston, drew plenty of press coverage yesterday in the locker room at the NovaCare Complex. Pinkston, now the team's No. 1 receiver, found himself jammed at his locker by a media horde carrying minicams, microphones, tape recorders and notebooks.

This was not a play made for slow motion. To capture Todd Pinkston's I-better-catch-this-or-else reception, one needs to see it in real time. The effort in his windmilling arms and legs, stumbling like a slow jogger on a quick treadmill, is what made it memorable. Pinkston's 80-yard catch was nonetheless a beauty for the Eagles and his ego. Before that, Pinkston's repertoire for the night consisted of The Flinch and The Drop. He made up for those by pulling in a deep throw from quarterback Donovan McNabb to put the Eagles at Washington's 4-yard line to start the second quarter.

Todd Pinkston is in the midst of one of his best seasons. Don't feel bad if you haven't noticed. "I haven't noticed, either," Pinkston said yesterday before the Eagles' practice at the NovaCare Complex. Through 12 games, Pinkston has caught 31 passes for 543 yards and one touchdown. At his current pace, he'll finish with 41 catches for 724 yards. During his best season two years ago, Pinkston caught 60 passes for 798 yards and seven touchdowns. "I think he'll end up with more yards this year," fellow receiver Greg Lewis said.

The press coverage finally got to Eagles receiver Todd Pinkston yesterday. No, not the kind of press coverage he'll see from Ricky Manning Jr. and the Carolina Panthers in Sunday's game at Lincoln Financial Field. This press coverage involved minicams, microphones and tape recorders. As Pinkston emerged from the players' lounge inside the NovaCare Complex locker room, he was greeted by an ESPN television crew. Soon after that, the media blitz was on. For the first time this week, Pinkston talked about last year's NFC championship game in which he failed to catch a pass and became the target of the fans' discontent after the Eagles' 14-3 loss to Manning and the Panthers.