In this case, the numbers didn't lie. The Eagles ranked 24th in the league last season in kickoff return average, 24th in punt return average and were 29th in net punt return average. Too, the Eagles allowed an average of 11.4 yards per punt return to rank 28th in the NFL.

Not good enough.

So one of the underlying themes of the offseason was to improve the special teams, through and through. By adding veterans like Rocky Boiman and Dan Klecko and drafting players like DeSean Jackson and Quintin Demps, the Eagles think they have made a positive step forward. But we don't know just how the special teams will fall into line until the season, and even at that point it's a week-by-week proposition. Until the group jells and plays with consistency, special teams in the NFL are a dicey group to watch.

Make no mistake, the Eagles have to be a lot better this year than they were last year in every phase of special teams. In theory, yeah, the return game should be popping with Jackson settling under punts. No matter the transition period frmo college, Jackson's explosiveness is a welcome addition after watching the sure-handed, but relatively leaden-footed, Reno Mahe in 2007. I give Mahe all the credit in the world for making himself into an NFL player, and his four-season run in Philadelphia had its moments. But he wasn't the take-it-to-the-house threat the Eagles needed, and the return game -- a disaster in the opening-day loss to the Packers -- was only OK in the punt return game the rest of the season and was only a tad better in the kickoff return game wtih Correll Buckhalter and J.R. Reed after a slow start.

Now it's on to a new look for second-year coordinator Rory Segrest, who was one of the many questions marks on this unit a year. The Eagles paid for putting all of their return eggs in the basket of Jeremy Bloom. They held an open competition at punter between incumbent Dirk Johnson and newcomer Sav Rocca. They hoped long snapper Jon Dorenbos would be the answer for 16 games. They needed some of their young players to learn the ropes on the go and form a special teams core very quickly.

Some of those hopes came through. Rocca beat out Johnson and then had a good, solid first year in the NFL. Dorenbos was outstanding, and he earned a long-term contract extension at the end of the season. Some of those young players, including Stewart Bradley, Hank Baskett and Akeem Jordan, blossomed on special teams and become a reliable core by the time December rolled around.

But in the end, the numbers didn't add up. The Eagles didn't dominate on special teams. They went back to the drawing board in the offseason.

How does it look now? Well, the core is still here. Bradley, though, is likely to move off of special teams now that he is the starting middle linebacker. But Baskett and Jordan are there, and players like Brent Celek, Greg Lewis, Joselio Hanson and some of the young draft picks are going to have to step up and make a good wedge for the return game and cover kicks and make plays.

Rocca should be, in his second season, entirely better than he was in 2007. His performance in the post-draft camp was much more consistent than a year ago. We should see the best of Rocca in 2008. At placekicker, David Akers has his usual leg strength and is working to straighten out the kinks that cost him a few kicks last season.

Jackson is a key, of course, but it's not even a given that he will be the guy in the return game. Demps is making the coaches take a second look and he wants a piece of the return game pie, too. Jackson is the logical front runner on punts, and he is a tremendously exciting prospect. Who returns kickoffs? Jackson is a candidate. Demps is a candidate. Buckhalter and Reed are experienced and hoping to build on the momentum from some returns late last year.

Instead of overhauling the special teams, the Eagles added to the group in the offseason. They tweaked here and there, and also added a dynamic presence in Jackson. Now, with Segrest at the helm for a second season, the Eagles have something to work with. This is not working from the ground up. This is working with a foundation and trying to create something that is stronger in every phase than it was a season ago.

Of course, everything is jibberish at the moment. The roster changes from day to day once training camp starts. Segrest wins some battles and loses some battles when it comes time to determining the 53-man roster. Numbers mean everything then.

The Eagles know that they need this phase of the game to be a starkly different group than it was in Segrest's inagural season as the coordinator. They want to dominate. They need to dominate. They've made the necessary changes to give themselves a chance to do so.