Eagles make cuts; Kafka goes, Edwards stays

The Eagles have started the process of getting down to the 9 PM deadline of 53 men by releasing the following players:

S O.J. Atogwe
TE Brett Brackett
LB Keenan Clayton
DT Landon Cohen
TE Chase Ford
WR Mardy Gilyard
WR Chad Hall
CB Joselio Hanson
FB Emil Igwenagu
T D.J. Jones
WR Marvin McNutt
LB Adrian Moten
DT Ollie Ogbu
LB Ryan Rau
DE Monte Taylor
S Phillip Thomas
DT Frank Trotter
G/C Steve Vallos
G Brandon Washington

One notable name on the chopping block was quarterback Mike Kafka, the club's 2010 fourth-round pick out of Northwestern. He was jettisoned in favor of Trent Edwards.

“There was great competition at the quarterback position,” said Eagles head coach Andy Reid. “That’s what football and training camp is all about. In the end, we had to make the difficult decision to let Mike Kafka go. Mike is a class act, a student of the game and a great person and I think he’ll have no problem finding a job in the National Football League very soon.

“On the other hand, I’m proud of the way Trent Edwards conducted himself since the early days of the offseason workouts. He had to fight for everything he earned this summer. He improved each and every day and made the most of every opportunity.”

Edwards acquitted himself well in Thursday's exhibition finale, a 28-10 victory over the Jets. The Stanford product and free-agent signing finished 22-of-32 for 197 yards and a pair of touchdown passes.

Brackett, Ford, Hall, Igwenagu, Jones, McNutt, Ogbu, Rau, Taylor, Thomas, Trotter and Washington all have practice squad eligibility.

The Eagles roster currently stands at 55 players.

In addition, the Eagles and G Mike Gibson reached an injury settlement and he has been released from their Injured Reserve list.

Nodl a Flyer no more among roster moves

The story of Andreas Nodl's NHL career will be written and finished somewhere else, as the young forward has been claimed off waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.

Nodl was sparingly used this season due to a logjam of contracts, and only tallied one assist in 2 games thus far this year. The emergence of younger talent such as Matt Read and Sean Couturier surely blocked the Austrian's path towards more playing time.

Philly's second-round pick in 2006 played collegiately at St. Cloud State, making his Flyers debut during the 2008-09 campaign. He posted his best numbers last year, with 11 goals and 22 points in 67 games. All told, the 24-year-old Vienna native dressed for 127 NHL games and recorded 12 goals with 28 points.

In addition, the club recalled forward Brayden Schenn and defenseman Kevin Marshall from Adirondack of the AHL.

Schenn has been rehabbing his broken foot, suffered on October 26 at Montreal, and is within the original timetable of 4-to-6 weeks of recovery. Marshall went scoreless in two games during a recent call-up.