Though it remains to be seen whether cornerback Lito Sheppard will behave like former teammate Terrell Owens once he gets there, the Eagles’ former No. 1 defensive back who was displaced by Asante Samuel will be at training camp.

But all signs are pointing to a better experience and outcome this time around, even though the same management structure and the same agent, Drew Rosenhaus, are involved.

“We’re going to keep everything real positive,” Rosenhaus told the Philadelphia Inquirer.  “I’ve had a lot of positive dealings with the team recently.  I’m confident that we’re going to find a mutually beneficial solution to this situation and we expect things to move in a positive direction.”

Rosenhaus met on Wednesday with V.P. of player personnel Howie Roseman, and team president Joe Banner participated by phone.

The Eagles tried to trade Sheppard before the draft, but after they signed Samuel.  Though it was prudent not to dangle Sheppard before getting Asante signed (which would have alerted other teams to the Eagles’ possible interest in Samuel), trading Sheppard under circumstances that indicate Sheppard isn’t in the team’s long-term plans necessarily creates less leverage.

It’s possible that the Eagles will keep Sheppard, allowing him to compete with Sheldon Brown for the starting spot across from Samuel.  The problem in that case will be keeping Sheppard from becoming a T.O.-style presence, since Lito surely feels grossly underpaid in comparison to Samuel.

And if Sheppard were to lose the competition with Brown, Sheppard’s trade value would drop even more.

Still, the team holds as the cards on this one.  Regardless of whether Sheppard is happy or unhappy with his $2 million base salary for 2008, he is signed through 2011.