Eagles Notebook: Injuries catching up to Eagles

THE EAGLES' chances of getting their offense back on track this week against a stout Baltimore defense did not improve Thursday when wide receiver DeSean Jackson missed practice with a hamstring issue.

No more information was released, and Jackson was not available for comment. The other starting wideout, Jeremy Maclin, missed his second day in a row with a hip injury suffered in the season opener, though Maclin said he intended to run on his own.

For what it's worth, Eagles quarterback Michael Vick said after practice he was optimistic about having both players for Sunday's home opener.

But right now, with Riley Cooper's collarbone still healing, the wideout corps is Jason Avant, Damaris Johnson and Mardy Gilyard, who was brought back Tuesday after having been cut just before the season.

Avant said the team would not change anything about its offense.

"It's different timing for the quarterback, but it's the same plays," he said.

Tight end Brent Celek said: "We've got other guys who can step in and step up. That's what this league's about. You've gotta have guys who can step up and do the same thing."

Gilyard said he was a little tired early in Wednesday's practice, but he got back up to speed quickly and was fine Thursday.

Maybe you saw what happened when Oakland long snapper Jon Condo left Monday's game against San Diego with a concussion, and wondered what the Eagles would do if anything happened to Jon Dorenbos.

The Raiders lost partly because linebacker Travis Goethel stepped in for Condo and was a disaster. Two punts never got off after he skidded the snaps along the ground. Another was blocked.

In Philadelphia, the backup long snapper is tight end Brent Celek, though Dorenbos, in his sixth season with the Birds, has never missed a snap.

Special-teams coordinator Bobby April said Celek works 20 to 30 minutes a week on long snapping, plus a session in every pregame warmup.

"He's pretty good," April said. "He can get us out of a game, and [starting center] Jason Kelce's OK, too."

Celek said he saw the Oakland game, thought about what would happen if he were called upon.

"If it happens, it happens, I gotta deal with it and go out there and play . . . I'll get a little nervous, I'm not going to lie, but I'll be fine," Celek said. "It's not like I don't get nervous in games as it is, you know?"

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg said rookie running back Bryce Brown "has earned an opportunity to play. As he keeps going, he may earn an opportunity to play more and more." Brown, who is probably the least-experienced back to play for the team in the modern era, said he is stressing "being accountable when called upon."

Andy Reid made a rare trip to the media work room to announce that Eagles practices no longer will be open to reporters.

Previously, reporters were allowed to watch the full Thursday and Friday practices, and the first 10 minutes on Wednesday. The first 10 minutes - mainly an opportunity for TV and still photography - still will be open all 3 days, Reid said, but because reporters are able to "put things together," he will not keep the remainder of those workouts open, as was the custom his first 13 seasons.

Reid said that 27 of the other 31 NFL teams do not allow reporters at practice, and he has come to feel it is an issue of competitive advantage, especially now that information spreads so quickly through social media.

The Eagles have always restricted what can be reported from practice. Matters of strategy and personnel were taboo, but there was a gray area with personnel; if, say, Jamar Chaney was taking first-team nickel reps, you couldn't say that, but you could ask Chaney about it in the locker room afterward, and use what he said. There has been friction over the years over exactly how gray the gray area was - things have been reported that the team felt should not have been; reporters, after all, are in the business of reporting, not of helping teams keep secrets. Some of us have been uncomfortable agreeing to not report what we see.

Now, reporters - and fans - won't know when lineup changes are being made, or if someone gets injured during practice, until the injury report is released. It will be harder for practice-day stories to reflect any feel of how the day went.

Despite Reid's reputation for not wanting to say much, the Eagles have offered a lot of access by the standards of the paranoid NFL.