The following players are inactive for the Eagles’ NFC East matchup against the Cowboys: Trent Edwards, Mardy Gilyard, Chris Polk, Danny Watkins, Nate Menkin, Vinny Curry and Phillip Hunt.

Many believe that Andy Reid would find San Diego appealing should he be a free agent at the end of the year, given his ties to Southern California. Jason LaCanfora’s sources are in agreement.

DeMarco Murray is out. Plenty of other big names on the injury list for the Cowboys.

Here’s a roundup of what the national media are saying about today’s Eagles-Cowboys matchup.

Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan offered up high praise when asked about LeSean McCoy this week.

“To me that’s the best back in football,” Ryan said, per ESPNDallas.com. “I really believe that. I think he’s tremendous. He’s so talented. He’s got vision everywhere. He’s so quick. And I think (offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinwheg) is the only guy probably that can stop him because that guy is phenomenal. So if they don’t give it to him, that’s a good thing. But he’s super talented.”

Join Tim and Sheil for a live Eagles-Cowboys chat today at 4:25. They’ll have updates and analysis live from the Linc.

Here are 10 things to know about how the Eagles’ offense matches up with the Cowboys’ defense. For the first cheat sheet, click here.

A lot of talk among Eagles fans right now is focused not on the team’s Week 10 game against the Cowboys, but rather who the next head coach could potentially be.

While we need to acknowledge that there are still eight games remaining, and that Andy Reid is under contract through 2013, it’d be foolish to ignore the buzz about head-coaching candidates that is already building.

Birds 24/7 is, after all, a blog for the people.

So from time to time, we’ll round up links and information about names you should know.

Without further ado…

Here are 10 things to know about how the Eagles’ defense matches up with the Cowboys’ offense.

Brent Celek‘s eyes started darting around the room the moment the topic was broached. He looked to his left, to his right,  and finally behind him before finding what he needed. He stepped over to the piece of wood inside his locker, knocked twice, and then let out a “C’Mon, man!”

The question: Have you ever missed a game?

The answer following the initial unrest: No.

Well, not since the grade school anyway.

“The last time I missed a game was in the sixth grade. I dislocated my elbow,” said Celek. “I popped it back in myself. I scored a touchdown on the play…It was just reaction. I just hit it and it popped back in. And when I popped it back in it broke.”

A lot of the questions tossed at Michael Vick Friday were about the team’s level of desperation.

With the season, the coaching era and jobs on the line, do the players understand the situation?

“We all understand the situation — hopefully everybody understands the situation. I know I do,” said Vick. “It’s not a situation we planned on being in. But you’ve seen a lot of teams with their backs against the wall and they come out doing everything they need to do in order to succeed. We’ve got to take on that mindset; we’ll find out on Sunday.”

LeSean McCoy returned to practice Friday and was a limited participant after missing the previous two days because of illness. He is listed as probable and is expected to play Sunday afternoon against the Cowboys.

“He’s getting there,” said Andy Reid. “He looked pretty good today, actually. He looked okay, but we’re just kind of easing him back in. He’s still got a little bit of a cough but he’s getting there.”

McCoy began feeling ill on Tuesday and was forced to sit out Wednesday and Thursday. He does not believe the missed time will hurt him.

We handed out evaluations for the offense earlier. Here are grades for the Eagles’ defense at the midpoint of the season.

Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times caught up with Jon Gruden recently to talk about the performance of the rookie quarterbacks at the midway point of the season. Thanks to ESPN’s “Gruden QB Camp” the former head coach has spent quality time with a bunch of the young signal-callers.

After analyzing the likes of Andrew Luck, RGIII and Russell Wilson, Gruden was asked who the next rookie quarterback to emerge will be.  He pointed to none other than Nick Foles.

We’re eight games in, so now seems like a good time to hand out some grades. Let’s go position-by-position and start with the offense. The defensive grades will come later today.