Eagles Notebook: Eagles practice squadder Te'o-Nesheim signed by Buccaneers

DANIEL Te'o-Nesheim might have been doomed here from the moment the Eagles selected him in the third round of the 2010 draft. The team hasn't really taken a third-rounder it ended up liking since Brian Westbrook in 2002. The litany of disappointment since then includes Billy McMullen (2003), Matt Ware (2004), Ryan Moats (2005), Tony Hunt (2007) and Bryan Smith (2008). Stewart Bradley (2007) was a decent player who quickly fell out of favor following a knee injury.

Te'o-Nesheim was signed off the Eagles' practice squad yesterday by the Tampa Bay Bucs. The Eagles replaced him with another defensive end, Maurice Fountain.

Te'o-Nesheim got into six games as a rookie, managing five tackles and one sack, but he did not make the team out of training camp this year and had been on the practice squad all season.

Fountain is 29, which might very well make him the oldest practice-squad player in Eagles history, if anyone bothered to track that. He played at Clemson, then in the Arena leagues and the UFL. He has been on the practice squads of the Dolphins and the Seahawks.

In his weekly radio appearance on WEEI in Boston, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said Pats coach Bill Belichick told his team the Eagles are "the best team we've played all year."

Brady called the 4-6 Eagles "talented at every position."

"Obviously, they've had some tough losses this year, most of them have been in the fourth quarter," Brady said. "But they have very good skill players . . . On a short week, against a very talented team, it's going to be all we can handle."

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