Fletcher Cox held a conference call last night after inking a 4-year deal with the Eagles. He was asked whether he was a fan of the new CBA and the fact that it has virtually ended holdouts?

"Yes. You don't want to miss a few days of training camp because if you miss three days, then you're three days behind and somebody else is ahead of you. With the new CBA, it makes a lot of stuff easy and helps us get this out the way. I know my agent did a great job of negotiating. I think he did a good job in getting it out of the way so I can play football."

Getting into camp on time is great, but so is making a few extra million dollars, which is what he would have gotten under the old CBA. Still, I think the general consensus among fans, owners & even veteran players is that the rookie scale is ultimately a pretty good thing for the game. Sam Bradford shouldn't be the 2nd highest paid QB in the NFL (amazingly he is)... And for Cox, $10 million is still a pretty good living...

Cox also addressed the recent death of his cousin, which caused him to miss a few days of the most recent OTA.

"Dealing with the death in my family was a really bad time for me, and I kind of struggled a little bit. To get the contract signed is just a blessing. Melvin is in a better place right now and he'll be watching down on me on Sundays and every day, even during practice, he'll be looking down on me. He would've wanted nothing but the best."

I suppose the past few weeks for the Cox family has been the definition of bittersweet.