Notes: Maclin's role, defensive teachers

Time to empty out the notebook before heading back to the Philadelphia area:

** The slant has never been Donovan McNabb's strong suit, but he threw a nice ball today, connecting with Kevin Curtis.

** We caught a glimpse of a few ways the Eagles could use Jeremy Maclin, even if he doesn't learn the whole playbook before Week 1. Maclin caught a wide receiver screen during the morning practice and made a nice to move to race up the sidelines. Over on the defense, Omar Gaither joked that Maclin's legs are fresh because he missed so much practice. It seems that if he's slow to learn the offense, the Eagles will try to get Maclin the ball in space, on wide receciver screens and such. He also caught a couple short crossing patterns today, where he had room to pick up yards after the catch. And he did take part in this afternoon's special teams practice.

** Seventh-round pick Moise Fokou gets in the blog for the second day in a row. He punished running back Eldra Buckley on a blitz, drawing praise from Sean McDermott who clapped and congratulated him after the play.

** "This is live as far as you're concerned,"  yelled a coach to Maclin after he carried the ball loosely before the whistle blew.

** Maclin beat Jack Ikegwuonu on one play, and Asante Samuel called his fellow cornerback over with instructions afterwards. That's something you see a lot of here. Veterans helping the younger players out. McNabb called LeSean McCoy over after he lined up in the wrong spot. And Ellis Hobbs assisted Byron Parker. Those were some of the examples I noticed today.

** During one-on-one cornerback vs. wide receiver drills, Samuel delivered a blow to Maclin at the line of scrimmage, but lost his footing. It appeared Maclin had him beat, but Samuel caught up, for a second. Maclin cut outside, Samuel lost his footing, and the crowd went wild as the rookie made the reception. The wet grass didn't help Samuel's cause.

** Nice day from safety Sean Jones. Early on, he made a nice play in coverage matched up against Brent Celek. And then during the two-minute drill, he hit Jason Avant in the end zone and came up with an interception.

** McNabb has thrown very few interceptions this camp, but the 'D' got him a couple times today. On one play, Curtis slipped, allowing Ikegwuonu to make the INT. And Samuel got one off McNabb later.

** Anonther CFL rep here today, this one from the Edmonto Eskimos. An Eagles worker asked him to step within the boundaries where fans watch practice, before realizing he was a coach and credentialed to be there.

** Trent Cole dropped back in coverage on one play and was matched up with Eugene Bright, who dropped the pass.

** A couple nice plays in a row by Joe Mays, bringing down LeSean McCoy.

** McCoy, who's been very impressive, got bowled over by a blitzing Tracy White.

** Todd Herremans was slow to get up after one play, but eventually walked off the field under his own power and appears to be OK.

** Nice hustle by Bryan Smith tackling a receiver from behind 10 yard or so down the field.

** Pass coverage is not Quentin Demps' strong suit, but he made a nice play on a jump ball matched up with Maclin.

** Below is our video report with Marcus Hayes, who had some interesting things to say to people who think leadership can be overrated.