With Kurt Coleman heading to injured reserve because of a biceps injury, rookie safety Jaiquawn Jarrett will make his second start this season in the Week 17 finale against the Washington Redskins. Jarrett, the Eagles' second-round pick this year, made his first start back in Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals and registered seven tackles.
Sunday's game will provide Jarrett with an opportunity to get a head start on next season's race for a starting role.
"I think when, I've said that before, I think once minicamps start, once training camp begins, it's wide open competition for really every position. That's how it works," said head coach Andy Reid, when asked about Jarrett's potential to work his way into the 2012 starting lineup. "He's had a couple of opportunities in there when other guys were banged up and he did a nice job, so I would just expect him to continue to build on it. Great experience for him, so I think it's a positive."
For his part, Jarrett believes he's much better prepared to step into the starting lineup now than he was in the beginning of the season, which came on the heels of a truncated offseason.
"In the beginning of the season, there was a lot going on, it was a learning process," said Jarrett Wednesday. "I'm still learning as of today. You never stop learning. So I'm more comfortable today than I was four months ago.
"Football is hard to learn. It's easy to play. When you get it down-pat with the terminology, you can go out there and execute."
In that learning process, Jarrett has actually leaned on the man he'll be replacing Sunday. In fact, Jarrett can learn a lot from Coleman about the Redskins, against whom Coleman picked off three passes back in Week 6.
"Every minute of the day whenever (Coleman's) sitting next to me or we're in the meeting room, I always text Kurt or ask him what's going on on this play or what is he thinking because he's a real intelligent football player."
Jarrett added that he's not disappointed he hasn't been able to make more of an impact in his rookie season, but he's also far from satisfied.
"There's always pressure," he said. "You have high expectations on yourself, so when I get out there, I'm going to make sure that I'm executing to the best of my ability.
"All I can do is just keep working."
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