IS STOCKPILING DEFENSEMEN
Jeremy Maclin arrived at Lehigh after the morning practice, signed his contract and was expected to speak to the media following special teams practice, around 2:45. Maclin is scheduled to take the field for the first time Wednesday morning.
Maclin, the Eagles' first-round pick, agreed to terms Monday night, but was in St. Louis. He arrived in Philadelphia a little after 10 a.m., then had to journey northward to Bethlehem.
Apparently, Maclin spent much of last week in Philly, but went home to Missouri over the weekend.
"Every minute of the day [WR Coach] David Culley will be busy with him," offensive coordinator Marty Morhinweg said Tuesday, when asked about the process of bringing Maclin up to speed. "I’ve been through this many times before, and some guys fit right in and it’s normally, like I said, the guys that are natural-type football players, it comes a little bit easier to them, and when they’re real sharp mentally, that usually happens pretty quick for them. But we’ll see. Some great players, it may take two or three years before they mature into an excellent football player. Sometimes it’s very quick, so we’ll see.”
***
Roster moves: As expected, the Eagles added LB Matt Wilhelm and DE Jason Babin Tuesday. With Jeremy Maclin now aboard, that meant they had to cut three players, who turned out to be DT Jervonte Jackson, CB Courtney Robinson and WR Marcus Thigpen. Jackson, half-brother of Eagles center Jamaal Jackson, was featured in a May 22 Daily News story in which he spoke of hoping his pro earnings would fund an appeal for his imprisoned mother, Avonda Dowling, who is serving a 20-year sentence in California for dealing drugs.
***
Crunch Time (a collection of hits and a few misses from the morning session):
*Leonard Weaver picked up a blitzing Chris Clemons, allowing Donovan McNabb to connect with LeSean McCoy on a bomb down the right side.
*Reggie Brown broke Quintin Mikell's tackle on a wideout screen to the right side.
*Joe Mays chased down and thumped Lorenzo Booker after Booker took a short flip from McNabb.
*Kevin Kolb ran a fake QB sneak, then screened to Booker, but Mikell and Chris Gocong were not fooled and they buried the back.
*Kolb beat a blitz for a nice goal-line TD pass to Booker.
*Omar Gaither went in unblocked and "sacked" McNabb.
*Brandon Gibson showed strong after-the-catch moves, following a reception from A.J. Feeley.
*McNabb took advantage of strong protection to connect on a bomb with Kevin Curtis, who eluded Rashad Baker.
*Entertaining dustup seemed to start with Gaither and Max Jean-Gilles, quickly involved Jean-Gilles' linemateWinston Justice and linebacker Charleston Hughes.
*
To read Paul Domowitch's take on the Andy Reid situation with the media, click here.
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.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with 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 started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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