The Patriots’ Chad Jackson makes a fourth-quarter touchdown catch against the Eagle’s Quintin Demps. Patriots coach Bill Belichick praised the play of Jackson, and several other receivers, in the loss to the Eagles on Friday night.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

Just a few days before New England’s preseason opener with Baltimore, Patriots coach Bill Belichick was asked about his team’s use of the new defensive headset radio.

“We haven’t used them yet,” Belichick said at the time. “It’s not really a high priority right now.”

But something changed since that Aug. 13 news conference, because during the Patriots’ Friday night game with the Eagles, Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel were wearing helmets with the radio installed. Since Bruschi generally doesn’t play on third down, Vrabel likely wore it on those downs when Bruschi wasn’t on the field.

Belichick acknowledged that the team is still trying to figure out how best to utilize the radios.

“We used them a little bit last week against Tampa in pre-game, not actually during the game — it was on the road and all that,” Belichick said. “I think it is a learning experience for everyone. We know more about it now and at least have a game under our belts to try to figure out what is the best way to utilize it and how to make it advantageous and keep it from being another problem or another log on the fire that we really don’t need.”

The experiment must have gone well enough, because Belichick hasn’t tabled it.

“We will talk about it more this week and try to figure out the best plan and if we can utilize it productively, then we will, and if we can’t, then we won’t. We’ll just have to see how that goes and try to decide what is the most efficient way to do it.”

Initially, Belichick cited the high number of substitutions the Patriots make defensively as one of the issues with the team’s use of the radio. If Bruschi and Vrabel are the radio-wearers going forward, each will have to bring two helmets to every game.

No update on Wes Welker

Wes Welker was shaken up during a first-quarter punt return against Philadelphia, and left the game with what was announced as a rib injury.

He did not return to the game.

Asked yesterday for an update on the receiver’s status, Belichick said he did not have one.

Welker did not record a catch before being hurt.

Belichick praises receivers

Belichick was asked about the play of receivers Chad Jackson and C.J. Jones against the Eagles. Jackson, who has seemingly limitless potential, has struggled after a strong start to training camp, and Jones, who spent last year on New England’s practice squad, is essentially down to his last chance to make it in the NFL, as he is out of practice-squad eligibility.

Jackson had two catches for 17 yards, including a pretty one-yard touchdown grab from Matt Gutierrez; Jones had three catches for 70 yards, including a nine-yard scoring grab.

Belichick said Jackson and Jones weren’t alone as offensive players who made some good plays.

“Chad and C.J. both went up and got ball very aggressively and [made] good catches,” Belichick said. “Ray Ventrone had a couple catch-and-run plays. I thought he ran hard with the ball after he caught it. [Tight ends] David Thomas, Tyson DeVree and a few of those guys showed up on a few plays as well.

“Overall, I thought the receivers made some plays, either going up and aggressively getting the ball or catch-and-run kind of plays. A couple of third-down conversions, a couple of red-area plays and long balls, so that was encouraging I thought those were positives, probably a little bit better than we have done in the two previous games.”

Ventrone, who is making the transition from safety to wide-out, recorded four catches for 49 yards; Thomas had two grabs for 28 yards.

smanza@projo.com