Michael Vick has reached the point in his comeback where he doesn't have to prove himself anymore. The New York Jets beat Philadelphia 21-17 in their preseason finale Thursday night, while Vick led the Eagles to a field goal in two series and Kurt Coleman scored on two fumble returns. Making his first start in four years, Vick played just one quarter before heading to the bench.

The Philadelphia Eagles closed their preseason on Thursday night with a 21-17 loss to the New York Jets.

More important than the score were the final impressions made, and now the Birds have less than 48 hours to decide on and assemble their 53-man roster.

The NFL’s mandated 53-man deadline is 4 p.m. Saturday, and until then, speculation will run rampant on which bubble players made it and which didn’t.

If I were Andy Reid and/or GM Howie Roseman, this is how that final group would look.

Of course, all positions (and the practice squad) are subject to change depending on who is released by other teams; remember, that’s how the Eagles acquired Tracy White.

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Lets face it, the Eagles redzone performance is not exactly living up to our expectations. Throughout the pre-season we have watched Kevin Kolb lead offense to inside the twenty, and then sooner or later David Akers comes onto the field and gives us three.

Well, three points at a time does not win football games. Especially when you are playing against high scoring offenses, (Packers, Colts, Cowboys). In the interest of winning games, the Eagles must change this redzone struggle they have been battling.

Here are five reasons how the Eagles can fix their redzone problems.

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The Philadelphia Eagles preseason will come to a close tonight. After tonight, the team will begin to make it’s final decisions on roster positions and will then enter full game plan mode for the Packers.

Tonight is going to be a very important night for a lot of Eagles players, especially the young guys. The starters won’t be taking any reps tonight so that the backups and third-string guys can battle it out to prove who deserve a spot on the roster.

One guy I’ll be watching already has a spot on the roster and that is Michael Vick. His play this preseason has been very inconsistent, and we will see him take all the quarterback reps during the first half tonight.

I’m not concerned about Vick’s ability to run the ball and see that as an asset the Eagles will use to their advantage this season. However, I am worried about his decision making with his passes. His arm strength is great and I think he can place the ball where he wants, but he has made some bad decisions this preseason.

If Vick can prove that he can make good decisions throwing the ball, he should be a real dangerous dual-threat this season.

Another thing to watch for will be the battle between Hank Baskett and Kelley Washington. These guys will see a lot more time on offense then they have in the previous weeks, but I don’t think that is the important thing.

I think that if one of them can make a big play on special teams tonight, it could be the deciding factor. No matter who makes it, they’re not going to see a lot of time on offense during the season. They will spend a lot of time on special teams. With these two, the Eagles need the best special teams player, not the best receiver.

On defense, there are a lot of guys to watch. I’d like to see Dimitri Patterson and Trevard Lindley play well. I think these are two guys that can potentially prove they can come in and play on nickel type situations.

I’m also interested to see how much time Macho Harris gets. He has missed a lot of time this year and he could end up being cut.

There’s also a bunch of other rookies on defense who I’ll be watching. Guys like Jeff Owens, Jamar Chaney, Keenan Clayton, and Kurt Coleman are fighting for positions and need to have a solid game.

What will you be looking for in tonight’s game?

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Somebody asked Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott the other day whether his defense has looked better this summer than it did last year.

“At which point last year?” McDermott asked with a laugh. “You know, there’s a number of new faces, and it’s one thing to look good in preseason, and it’s another to look good throughout each and every week of a 16-game schedule. So we still have a lot of work to do. And the players know that more than anybody.”

Beset by injuries and the departure of seven-time Pro Bowl free safety Brian Dawkins, McDermott’s unit struggled last season, giving up 27 touchdown passes and holding just two of their final 12 opponents to less than 20 points.

But head coach Andy Reid and general manager Howie Roseman made some key offseason…

It’s kind of disgusting how much Eagles fans love Riley Cooper.

Maybe it’s cool to see a white guy at receiver running around the field with golden hair cascading from his helmet. Or maybe we’re on to the next big thing because we’re the most football-savvy fans in the world.

Either way, it’s getting a little uncomfortable for me.

Cooper is going to make the team and maybe have 20 catches for a couple hundred yards and he might even find the endzone once or twice. Those aren’t the kind of numbers to get me excited about a player.

Why should I get worked up about a player because he hustles, when I can focus my venom on players that frustrate the bullcrap out of me?

Out of the five players on this list, two are locks to make the team, but hopefully the other three stiffs get the pink slip on September 4.

Then again, a season filled with one-liners directed at these clowns could make a long season a little more tolerable.

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On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Eagles made official a move that many have expected for a couple weeks—and may have unofficially made the first of their final roster cuts an easy one.

Macho Harris’ return to cornerback has been aborted, and as of this week, the 2009 draftee will move back to the position he played last season, free safety.

Harris was slowed by injury this preseason, and his absence allowed both veteran Dimitri Patterson and 2010 fourth-round pick Trevard Lindley the chance to impress the coaching staff so much that Macho was shunted back inside.

Coach Andy Reid was fine with the move on two levels.

As he told PhiladelphiaEagles.com correspondent Bo Wulf, “A little bit of the reason for moving Harris to safety, I think, was that I felt comfortable with Lindley, who did a nice job.”

Reid also added that he thinks, “Macho is a good safety…he can also help you out in nickel situations inside.”

Harris is fine with it too, as he told Wulf that “I’m a team guy. I love this game of football. Whatever position they need me, I’m willing to play.”

So that drama finally seems to be settled, but its resolution brings about another potential one—what will become of seventh-round pick Kurt Coleman?

In the NFL, the norm says that talent will win a final roster spot more often than incumbency. That’s apparently true for Lindley, as his play and Macho’s move pretty much signal that he’ll be the fifth corner on this team.

Coleman has also had a very impressive preseason. He’s now nowhere near a lock to break camp with the club.

Incumbency aside, Reid has already said he likes what Harris can do in the nickel, which the Birds plan to run a bit more this fall.

Plus, there’s that matter of his kick return ability. A glut of depth at receiver means Chad Hall is unlikely to earn a roster spot, so return duties will fall on Harris, Quintin Demps, and perhaps Ellis Hobbs.

For most of the preseason, I have surmised that Lindley, Harris, and Coleman were battling for one or two spots…and if the former has his sewn up, the battle then gets even feistier.

Coleman does have one advantage (in name, anyway), as he’s currently listed as the second-team strong safety (with Harris third behind Demps and Nate Allen at free safety).

But as we saw last year, Demps is better suited to the strong safety position anyway, and Harris’ return would allow him to spend more time there.

It’s not out of the question that the Birds could keep 10 defensive backs; should they choose to go with only nine linemen—a possibility that got a little more realistic when Ricky Sapp was placed on IR—then the 25^th spot on defense would be between a linebacker and a DB.

Either Keenan Clayton or Jamar Chaney could find themselves in the situation of having played well enough to make the team but not actually doing so.

Unfortunately, I don’t think they will.

Both have shown great versatility and special teams ability this preseason and are likely to be ahead of either Tracy White or Moise Fokou (or both) on the depth chart come Saturday morning, which means the end of Kurt Coleman.

Just another reason that everyone wants as much guaranteed money as they can get, I guess.

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As we get closer and closer to the start of the regular season, my belief that Jamaal Jackson will line up as the Eagles’ starter at center against the Packers grows stronger and stronger.

Jackson has been ahead of his recovery schedule for quite some time now and is a toss-up for September 12th.

Andy Reid has said that he will be pushing Jackson in practices. I’m sure this is because Reid wants to see if Jackson truly will be ready to play against the Packers.

In his first few days of full practice, early indications seem to point to his opening day availability being a reality. He isn’t experiencing swelling in the knee. Parts of his body are sore, but that’s because he isn’t used to taking the full-time physical abuse yet. That takes a bit of time, and he has about another week and a half to get used to that.

Although you never want to see a player rushed back too early, the Eagles could really use a healthy Jackson out there. The team has yet to find a suitable replacement, so the return of Jackson would be very beneficial.

We saw the dramatic difference one player can make with Todd Herreman’s return to the lineup, and I’d expect much of the same in Jackson’s return. Not only does he play at a high level, but he is also the leader of the offensive line. He reads the defense at the line of scrimmage and calls out assignments.

Of course, if Jackson returns and suffers an injury, the coaching staff will be on the hot seat. I don’t want to see Jackson come back if he’s not ready, but I’m hoping to see him in the lineup Week 1.

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Michael Vick is fixing to enjoy something he hasn’t experienced in a long time. No. There isn’t an…

As a gift to Kevin Kolb and the rest of the Eagles team, the Green Bay Packers have placed cornerback Al Harris, as well as strong safety Atari Bigby, on the Physically Unable to Perform list, meaning they will miss at least the first six weeks of the season.

Harris is coming off a serious knee injury he suffered last season, and Bigby recently underwent ankle surgery.

Alright, perhaps the move wasn’t intended to be a gift for Kolb, but it will certainly look that way and, to be perfectly frank, it’s a gift this Eagles offense desperately needed.

With backups now making up half of the Packers secondary, the Eagles offense should be able to attack them fairly easily through the air. Charles Woodson, arguably a top-three corner, will still be a guy they have to deal with, but he’ll likely be given the difficult task of shutting down DeSean Jackson, leaving Jeremy Maclin matched up with a backup.

Knowing that, it’s likely the Packers will have ball-hawking free safety Nick Collins helping out in coverage with Maclin, but a safety can only do so much against a speed guy like Maclin.

If Andy Reid is smart, he will run a lot of deep routes with Jackson in an effort to get Woodson as far away from the play as possible, then run some quick timing patterns with Maclin. And if that doesn’t work, then just starting running Maclin and Jackson deep and start picking the defense apart with underneath routes to Jason Avant and Brent Celek.

Throw in a couple screens and swing passes and it’s going to create a rather difficult day for the Packers secondary.

Then, once Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers switches to a zone in an effort to prevent the underneath routes, Maclin and Jackson start getting matched up with safeties.

If Kolb can make the throws, it should result in a big day for him and the offense.

He’s probably going to have to wind up going throw-for-throw with Aaron Rodgers, so every advantage he can get will help immensely. He’s not ready to win a shootout with a guy like Rodgers, so hopefully Asante Samuel can step in front of a ball or two, or the Birds can get enough pressure to throw Rodgers and the Packers offense off their game.

Either way, this is terrible news for Green Bay and great news for the Eagles offense. If they can properly take advantage and expose the absences of Harris and Bigby, they might even be able to squeak out a win on a last-second David Akers field goal.

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