Donovan McNabb addressed reporters in an afternoon press conference, and discussed how teams persevere through injuries, as well as the progress of Jason Peters, LeSean McCoy and integrating Jeremy Maclin into the offense.
Even though Andy Reid gave no information on Bradley's official injury status, McNabb acknowledged that other players will need to step up in Bradley's absence - however long that may be.
"It is a major loss," McNabb said. "Stewart is a guy that I thought was really stepping into his own at the middle linebacker position and was able to do a lot of different things. Besides just stopping the run, he was able to be that leader, he was able to do well in the pass game, and obviously he set the tone for (the defense) ... We've all been through situations where guys have gotten hurt, I've gotten hurt, but what you do is gather the troops together to move forward, and someone else has to step up."
McNabb also dismissed the notion of there being any sort of void in leadership for the defense with Bradley sidelined.
"I thought Stewart Bradley was one of our leaders," he said, "But that doesn't mean he still can't be the leader. He's going through an injury right now, he'll be able to rehab and push those guys that are out there. We've still got guys like Sheldon Brown, Quintin Mikell, and Trent Cole, there are a lot of guys. It's not just on defense, it's as a team, we have leaders that can really elevate people's game, and elevate their own game as well to compensate for what we may be missing at times.
"As a team, you have to really jel together. That's when the guys that are healthy really elevate their game to try to take the place of the guy who's injured ... The confidence is built throughout the team in those guys.
"So whoever steps in at that role, we're going to have the utmost confidence in them that they're going to do the job well."
On Jeremy Maclin: "I mean he's a rookie. You act like he's been in the league five or six years. You don't know what he's going to do anyway. All we ask for him to do is catch the ball and get upfield and score, he's a receiver. At this point it's a business aspect of things that we've all been through. It's not like he's the only one that's holding out. He'll be here, we'll be able to get some work, and we'll see what we can get out of him this year."
On Jason Peters: "Jason, I think has gotten comfortable because he was involved in mini-camps and OTA's, and right now after coming back, he seems like he hasn't missed a beat. Obviously, he would like to be at 100 percent and I think he's working toward that, but the positive thing about it is that he's out there. He's out there working. And I think we've got one of the best tackles in the game, and he's going to try to prove that this year."
On LeSean McCoy: "Shady's doing well. (He) adds another dimension to our run game as well as our pass game. You have a guy who can spare Westbrook just like (Correll Buckhalter) did it for so many years ... Hopefully staying healthy, learning more about this offense and what we want to do, I think he can help us out in so many ways."
On Leonard Weaver: "We have another dimension with Weaver. He can play the tailback position, he can play the fullback position, he can catch the ball out of the backfield, he's picking up blitzes for us, doing a great job with that. So that helps us in so many ways, to be able to have a versatile guy like that."
-- Posted by Bo Wulf, 5:53 p.m., August 3
