The Eagles on Friday announced that they have signed offensive tackle Ed Wang to a two-year deal.

Wang became the first-ever Chinese-American to be taken in the NFL draft  after being selected in the fifth round  by the Bills in 2010. He played in six games as a reserve offensive lineman as a rookie before being placed on injured reserve  prior to the 2011 season. Wang, 25, signed with the Raiders prior to last season but did not make the team.

The 6-5, 315-pound Virginia Tech product started the final 35 games of his career with the Hokies and earned second-team All-ACC honors as a senior at left tackle. He began his college career as a tight end before moving to the offensive line as a sophomore.

His parents both met as Chinese Olympians and participated in the 1984 Los Angeles games before immigrating to the United States.

Chip Kelly had done a little homework on the whole Michael Vick age thing, and was armed with a response when the subject was broached earlier this week.

“Number one, I think when you look at his age and study it for quarterbacks, he is actually younger than Tony Romo and about the same age as Eli Manning.  I think sometimes when you look at him because he has been in the league for a while and he came out early from college. And you look at his age and say, boy, he’s aging.  And it’s funny,” said Kelly. “So I think there is a lot more to Michael.”

Fair enough. But the question wasn’t about how Vick ranks by age compared to his contemporaries, but rather how Kelly planned on getting a soon-to-be 33-year old to change his spots.

I fear we are reading a little too much into the Dennis Dixon signing.

We see that Chip Kelly opted to keep Michael Vick around for next season then went and signed one of his former Oregon quarterbacks,  and jump to the conclusion that Nick Foles is being squeezed out of the picture and it’s read-option city from here on in.

Maybe not.

The Eagles signed former Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon to a two-year deal Thursday. Dixon was most recently on the practice squad for the Super-Bowl champion Ravens.

The 28-year-old has been in the league since 2008 and has just three starts to his name — all with the Steelers. He has not thrown a pass in the bigs since 2010, and was unable to crack a 53-man roster this past season.

He is now reunited with his old college coach, however, and Kelly has worked magic on Dixon once already. The year before Kelly arrived at Oregon, Dixon threw 12 touchdowns to 14 interceptions and Oregon went 7-6. Kelly came aboard as the offensive coordinator for Dixon’s senior season. The quarterback tossed 20 touchdowns to four INTs that year, becoming a Heisman candidate as the Ducks finished 9-4.

Every Thursday we select a few of your Twitter questions and provide the long-form answers they deserve. For a chance to have your question published on Birds 24/7, send it to @Tim_McManus.

Look closely, and you’ll see a pattern forming that speaks directly to Chip Kelly‘s plan of attack.

Offensive line coach, assistant offensive line coach; tight ends coach, assistant tight ends coach. Defensive line coach, assistant defensive line coach. And so on. There is a strength and conditioning coach, and a sports science coordinator to complement him. Kelly himself has former head coach Pat Shurmur on his wing.

Even the pair of linebacker coaches might not be all about the expected switch to a 3-4.

As defensive coordinator Billy Davis puts it: “We have two guys for every position.”

And now, Tom Gamble enters the fray to double-down on the personnel side in a big way.

The Eagles are trying to build a Super Bowl contender, and are calling on an old friend who has experience doing just that.

The team announced Wednesday that have hired Tom Gamble to become the team’s Vice President of Player Personnel.

NFL.com just released its unofficial free-agent list for 2013. It’s time to start looking at some names.

Free agency opens on March 12 at 4 p.m. We will be doing plenty on free agency as we get closer, zeroing in on available players at key positions of need for the Eagles. Let’s start off by taking a look at the safety market.

Seated at a table in the cafeteria at the Novacare Complex, Duce Staley was asked a straight-forward question: How good can LeSean McCoy be?

“He can be the best,” said the Eagles’ new running backs coach without hesitation. “He can be the best to play the game.”

There is a host of pressing issues when it comes to the Eagles’ secondary, but you’ll have to excuse new defensive backs coach John Lovett if he doesn’t yet have all the answers.

“I don’t know how long everyone else has been here but I walked into the office today for the first time,” said the 62-year-old Lovett on Monday. “In fact I rode over here with [inside linebackers] Coach [Rick] Minter just so I can figure out how to drive over here and not get lost. We had a full staff meeting and a defensive staff meeting, then the phone guy comes in and a guy comes in to put a computer in. It’s been that kind of a day. Everyone is still kind of rolling around.”

The nearest prop Jerry Azzinaro could find was a plastic bottle of Heinz relish.

Speaking to reporters at the Novacare Complex Monday afternoon, the new Eagles’ defensive line coach was asked to explain Chip Kelly’s “outside-the-box” thinking when it comes to football.

“In every situation that you go into, you’re trying to figure out ways that you can optimize your talent,” Azzinaro, who spent the past four seasons at Oregon, said. “Is that thinking out of the box? I don’t know about that. I just know that you try not to fit round pegs into a square hole. You try to investigate everything that you can from a sports science standpoint.

“Is that really good relish to be feeding our guys?” he asked, pointing to the bottle on the table. “Is that filled with sodium? Is that filled with sugar? Well, that’s the way we think. Is that out of the box? I don’t know that. Is that being detail-oriented? I don’t know that. But I know that it’s important that if my guys are going to come in here and eat here that I need to understand what’s going on in that relish bottle.”

If you haven’t noticed, Kelly has a specific way he plans on tending to every aspect of the Eagles’ football operation.

 Michael Vick talked to Mike & Mike this morning about his decision to restructure his contract to stay in Philadelphia.

“Initially I weighed my options,” said Vick. “The city of Philadelphia has been great to me, the organization has been great. I’ve enjoyed my ride there, my experience. It was pretty much all up in the air. It was my decision, it was at my discretion. It was also at their discretion. Overall you have to look at what really works and what makes you comfortable, and I felt as if coming back made me feel comfortable. Meeting with Chip [Kelly] for the first time, I felt as if we can make it work if we had the opportunity to work together. It was a whole array of things that brought me back.”

Kelly sounded like he wants Vick to be part of the quarterback equation for the 2013 season, though Vick’s new one-year deal does offer the Eagles some flexibility.

Billy Davis sat at the head of one of the cafeteria tables inside the NovaCare Complex Monday, surrounded by a swarm of reporters trying to get a feel for one of Chip Kelly’s most curious hires. Certainly his most important.

Eventually, the subject of Davis’ less-than-sizzling resume as defensive coordinator came up. His units ranked 32nd and 26th in his two seasons as DC in San Francisco. In Arizona, his defense finished 20th and 29th in yards. Those are not the most comforting statistics for fans who have little else to go off of.

“In my past I’ve got good stats and I’ve got bad stats, like most people,” said Davis. “There are a lot of reasons for all of it, I’ve got no excuses for any of them. Everywhere I’ve been I have had good people, I’ve learned lessons from those experiences and I think I have gotten better because of it. It’s something I’m bringing to the Eagles now, I’ve got some experience in calling games and working schemes and game-planning and adjusting. At the end of the day we’re problem solvers. You learn from your experience and you move forward.”

Within 30 seconds of his press conference Monday afternoon, Chip Kelly announced the news of the day: Michael Vick had restructured his deal and would be back with the Eagles.

Minutes later, though, he reminded everyone to use pencil, not pen, for their February depth charts.

“There is an open competition,” Kelly said. “Michael knows that. Nick [Foles] knows that. Nick knew every step of the way what we were doing. I wanted to make sure Nick was included in the plans, and I think both of them have outstanding qualities in terms of being quarterbacks in this league. Both of them have started in this league.

“I also know in this league, you better have two, so I’m excited about the two of them. They’re both going to compete. And who the starting quarterback is to start the season off is going to be won on the practice field.”

The question is: Are you buying it?

The Michael Vick news stole the show Monday. On the day Chip Kelly‘s much-discussed coaching staff was put on display, the mind kept going back to Vick and the fact that he would almost certainly be part of the quarterback equation in Philadelphia for another season after restructuring his contract.

“I am grateful and proud to be a Philadelphia Eagle. My heart is in Philly and this community is important to me,” said Vick in a statement. “I look forward to playing for Coach Kelly, Jeffrey Lurie and the entire Eagles organization, the city of Philadelphia and the fans. I am training hard this offseason and will be ready for Coach Kelly’s team vision and leadership. Our goal is to win.”

So, how did we get here?