Eagles Notebook: McGlynn now in center of the action for Eagles

When Jamaal Jackson took his first step off the field Sunday, right arm dangling from a season-ending torn triceps, Mike McGlynn might have taken his first step toward becoming the Eagles' permanent center.

Hard to put it that way without wincing at the indelicacy, which was why one of the first things McGlynn said yesterday when reporters gathered around his locker stall was, "You never want to see anybody go down."

But as McGlynn has noted in the past, Jackson got his foot in the door in 2005, when Hank Fraley suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the eighth game of the season. The next training camp, Jackson and Fraley held a "competition" for the job that seemed heavily weighted toward the younger man.

"That's the way I want to look at it," McGlynn said, when asked if he thought he might be able to play his way into permanence. "My goal has always been to be a starter in the NFL . . . I feel like this is my opportunity to excel at it. It's all in my hands now, and that's a good feeling, because most of the time, it hasn't felt that way. You feel like, 'All right, you played well, but we have a lot of guys in front of you.' So you don't get a chance. Now there's an opportunity, and I feel like it's in my hands. That's all I can ask for. That's all that matters, to me."

Jackson, 30, who also missed the 2004 season with a triceps tear, was playing for the first time Sunday since suffering an ACL tear in the next-to-last regular-season game of 2009. McGlynn, a fourth-round pick in 2008, played the entire preseason at center, at least partly because veteran backup Nick Cole was suffering from knee soreness. Now, Cole is starting at right guard, but should McGlynn falter, it would be easy enough in a few weeks to play Cole at center and put recently acquired former Cards starter Reggie Wells in at guard.

McGlynn said he spoke to Jackson after the game.

"I just went up to him and I said, 'Man, I'm sorry,' " he said. "I've been through that - my senior year in high school, I broke my leg."

Left guard Todd Herremans said Jackson, "Seems to have come to grips with it and is trying to move on, with a positive mindset."

Up to now, McGlynn's main claim to fame is the oft-told story of how he had his wife, Megan, stand in and take shotgun snaps from him in the offseason, so he could get extra practice.

"That's been a big story. It's just been really blown out of proportion," McGlynn said yesterday. "Every time I'm on TV, my wife gets a shout-out. I know she loves it."

McGlynn added to his notoriety Sunday when he went up and grabbed a deflected Kevin Kolb pass, catching it in traffic, for a 1-yard gain.

"My phone blew up after [the game]. I got 50-to-100 text messages. My friends, they're calling it 'The Reception' now," McGlynn said. "Not 'The Immaculate Reception,' just 'The Reception.'

"I saw the ball up and all I thought was, 'Man, I'm gonna get blown up. This is bad.' Any time an offensive lineman jumps in the air . . . "

McGlynn didn't finish his sentence. (But we can - how about, "An elephant gets its wings?")

McGlynn's fears were not realized, he said.

"I just got a guy kinda lay on me," he said. "That was interesting . . . Unfamiliar territory for me."

DeSean Jackson got a lot of attention from the Packers' secondary last Sunday, managing only four catches for 30 yards, all in the second half. Jackson hopes to be less frustrated by what he thinks will be a different-looking Detroit scheme this week, but he knows he can expect extra attention from everyone, now that he has been to the Pro Bowl.

"It is frustrating, but I kind of brought that on myself, I guess, going out there the past 2 years, catching all those touchdowns, all of those deep touchdowns," Jackson said. He said his mentor, Jerry Rice, "always told me, that's when you really find out about yourself, when they double- and triple-team you."

Rookie quarterback Mike Kafka is a step closer to playing, if he is the No. 2 this week, assuming the absence of Kevin Kolb, but Kafka said he doesn't feel any different. He said he feels he needs to continue concentrating on a steep learning curve, not on possibly being closer to the action . . . Tight end/fullback Garrett Mills, brought up from the practice squad, said he was an emergency fullback for New England and Minnesota. Mills feels Brad Childress' Minnesota offense gave him a pretty good grasp of what the Eagles do . . . Concussion victims Kolb and Stewart Bradley were the only Eagles who didn't practice yesterday.