IS BUYING CROSS-COUNTRY SKIS
DeSean Jackson came to camp this season with very little to prove.
Yet, he's probably been the best player on the field, certainly the most noticeable, in the first week-and-a-half at Lehigh.
Quarterback Kevin Kolb talked Wednesday about how Jackson's desire to be one of the league's best propels the skinny little wideout, who seems to relish facing off 1-on-1 with Pro Bowl corner Asante Samuel. Samuel and Jackson jaw at one another constantly, taunting and baiting.
Jackson caught 62 passes for 912 yards last season. Conventional wisdom holds that the way the Eagles like to spread the ball around, and throw to their running backs, it's hard for a wideout to really put up big numbers. Only one guy has done that, in the Andy Reid era, and that receiver's tenure here ended abruptly in November 2005. He lives in Buffalo now.
Jackson might be good enough to make the Birds bend the offense his way a little.
"I'm not calling the plays and I'm not scheming anything up, but as many balls come my way, that's as many balls as I'm going to catch," Jackson said Thursday. "The biggest thing is being consistent. That's what I'm doing through this camp ... working hard, putting the work in. There's no substitute for the hard work you put in."
One of the reasons Jackson was available with the 49th pick in the 2008 draft was that scouting reports did not emphasize hard work as his forte. Either those reports were wrong, or Jackson has grown up a lot since becoming a pro.
"People have their opinions on certain things. That's something I can't control," Jackson said. "I'm very comfortable and confident in my work ethic."
CRUNCH TIME
(a compilation of hits and a few misses from Thursday's morning session.)
*Play of the day had to be safety Sean Jones' end zone pick. One play after breaking up a two-minute-drill goalline pass from Donovan McNabb to Kevin Curtis, Jones was covering Jason Avant. McNabb -- who looks very sharp -- threaded the ball through bodies to Avant, who seemed to juggle it briefly. Jones took it off Avant's pads for a drive-killing end zone interception.
"It was a good play. he did like a little slant on me," Jones said. "The ball was kind of in there first, but I kind of knocked it out, when I was up in the air there. We needed it; that was a big play for us, ending the two-minute drill."
Jones said the defenders checked out of a blitz that would have left Avant uncovered. "I came out of (the blitz) because of the personnel that were in," he said.
*Earlier, the offense won a ball that could have gone to the defense -- in 7-on-7, Joe Mays had a McNabb pass on his fingertips, but Avant snatched it and took off.
*Another figtht today, defensive tackle Willie Williams vs. offensive lineman Mike Gibson. Not surprisingly, the prime antagonists always seem to be guys scrapping for roster spots.
*Mays chased down and smothered LeSean McCoy on a dumpoff, then a screen, one to each side of the field, on back-to-back plays.
*With his fellow defenders yelling "Watch that screen!" Darren Howard snuffed a screen to Lorenzo Booker, catching Booker from behind just after he caught the ball.
*Kevin Kolb hung up a bomb to Jeremy Maclin, allowing Quintin Demps to get under it, outjump Maclin and knock the ball away.
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
