Eagles Notes: Eagles' Maclin misses practice; Gilyard steps in

Wide receiver Jeremy Maclin missed practice Wednesday and his status remains in question for Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens.

Maclin suffered a hip pointer in the opening win over the Cleveland Browns. Eagles coach Andy Reid said Maclin was feeling better and has not yet ruled out the receiver for Sunday.

With Maclin absent, two new additions to the wide receiver corps were at practice. Riley Cooper, who has been sidelined with a broken collarbone since July 28, returned. Mardy Gilyard, who was signed Tuesday, was also with the team.

Reid said Monday that Cooper would not play Sunday. On Wednesday, Cooper raved about how he felt.

"The good thing is I'm way ahead of schedule, and I feel really good, and I finally got to go out there and play with my boys," Cooper said.

If both Maclin and Cooper are absent, Gilyard will have a valuable opportunity. Gilyard made nine catches for 151 yards during the preseason, but the Eagles waived him Aug. 31. That time was enough to impress the Eagles, who brought him in for a visit Tuesday before signing him.

"You saw Mardy make plays," Reid said. "He was really able to handle the X and Z positions mentally, and then he went out and made plays. We're giving him an opportunity to come back here. We had a lot of tough cuts that we had to make, and that was one of them when we had to let him go."

Gilyard spent the last two weeks fishing and hoping that the phone would ring. He was told he was on a lot of teams' short lists, although that did not help him much. He wanted a workout to show what he could do in person, and could barely watch the NFL last weekend because it was too painful.

"You could be on the short list all year, which I was last year," Gilyard said. "I don't get too excited about the short-list calls."

He texted Maclin after Sunday's game and said he hoped Maclin would recover, even though the injury opened a spot for Gilyard. His problem is that Maclin and Cooper will recover, and he is determined to keep this stint from being a short one.

"Just continue to do what I did in the preseason," Gilyard said. "Make plays, be explosive, be consistent. Leave the rest up to the businessmen up in the office."

There was once a chance that guard Evan Mathis would be on the opposite sideline this weekend.

Before Mathis signed a $25 million contract with the Eagles in March, Mathis met with the Ravens. The meeting went well, but Mathis knew that the Eagles would return with an offer, and he was determined to see how that went.

"The way it played out, Howie [Roseman] kind of let someone else set the market," Mathis said. "I knew he was very open and up front about doing that. They made an offer, and he blew it out of the water. Ultimately, I knew what we had here. I wanted to be a part of it."

Mathis was not trying to call the Eagles' bluff. He seriously considered the Ravens and likely would have signed with Baltimore if the situations were reversed.

"I was definitely weighing my options," Mathis said. "They're a great team, a great organization. Coach [John] Harbaugh, I have a lot of respect for everything he does. If it was the other way around, and I was coming out of Baltimore in free agency, weighing everything equally, I probably would have gone there."

Maclin was the only player who did not participate in practice. Cooper, safety Kurt Coleman (facial lacerations), and cornerback Curtis Marsh (hamstring) were limited. . . . Owner Jeffrey Lurie, Reid, and Roseman paid their respects to Eagles legend Steve Van Buren at his memorial service at the Chapel of the Four Chaplains at the Navy Yard.