2007 Previews: Philadelphia Eagles

Note: This is a team-by-team look previewing the 2007 season. These are my official thoughts on how I think things will play out.

Last year: 10-6 (NFC East champs)

Best addition: Takeo Spikes (LB, Bills)

Key personnel loss: Donte Stallworth (WR, Patriots)

2007 outlook: Last year's conference champs are hoping they can continue the great run they had with Jeff Garcia at QB without Garcia. After Donovan McNabb went down for the season with a torn ACL, Garcia gave Philly fans hope and led the Eagles back to the playoffs. Besides Garcia, the Eagles let Stallworth leave after one year with the club but the addition of Kevin Curtis should balance things out in the end. The offense is in decent shape otherwise, as long as McNabb and Brian Westbrook can stay healthy, which is not a given.

The addition of Spikes on defense gives Philly another playmaking LB to complement Jeremiah Trotter while the defensive line and secondary are in good shape as well. This Philly squad is fairly balanced all around with no glaring holes.

Key to success: Keeping players healthy can probably be determined as a key to success for any team but it especially holds true for Philly, with the special attention needing to be paid to McNabb and Westbrook. These two are the most consistent players on offense when they are playing but neither has played 16 games in consecutive seasons in a long time. Defensively, the health of DE Jevon Kearse will also have a huge impact on the team.

Against Washington: Philly will host the Skins in Week 2 before meeting up again in November in Washington. As with all of the teams in the NFC East, no matter how good or bad a team is playing during a given season records will have to be thrown out when these two teams meet and past performance is no indication of future success. Look for at least one of these games to be fairly close and competitive.

Fantasy sleeper: L.J. Smith. Smith is in a contract year and as usual with most consistent players, expect a huge season from Smith so he can go out and sign a large contract only to return to mediocrity next year. But the good news for fantasy owners is you only get to keep Smith for one season and this should be the season. Don't draft him with the upper echelon TE's like Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez, but do keep him in your top 6 and be ready to select him when the third and fourth TE's are drafted.