Les Bowen: Eagles have plenty of offensive weapons

AFTER LAST Sunday night's game, Marty Mornhinweg said one of his responsibilities as the Eagles' offensive coordinator is to make sure DeSean Jackson is getting the ball enough. Jackson acknowledged he isn't shy about reinforcing that point with Mornhinweg, quarterback Donovan McNabb or coach Andy Reid.

Truth is, Mornhinweg can be pulled in a lot of directions these days.

The Eagles, who are pretty much assured of a playoff berth if they defeat the visiting 49ers Sunday, might never have fielded this many weapons. The Birds are 6-1 without Brian Westbrook, an unthinkable situation as recently as last season. It was apparent early this year that Jackson intended to just keep improving on his impressive 2008 rookie campaign, and that tight end Brent Celek was blossoming as a full-time starter, but plenty of other pleasant discoveries happened along the way.

Despite lackluster totals the past 2 weeks, LeSean McCoy seems a cinch to become the most productive rookie running back of the Reid era (McCoy has 139 carries for 558 yards and 34 catches for 256). Jeremy Maclin (not expected to play this week with a foot injury), is third among NFL rookies with 46 catches, despite having left last week's game without a catch. Improvising, Mornhinweg has often struck gold, such as when he finally started giving fullback Leonard Weaver the ball a little and Weaver started grabbing passes one-handed and rambling 59 yards with them, as he did in Atlanta. When teams were scheming to take away other options, Mornhinweg found he could lean on slot receiver Jason Avant for 17 catches in a three-game span, for 276 yards.

Then there is the whole Michael Vick business. As Mornhinweg reiterated yesterday, the first half of the season was Vick's training camp. The past 2 weeks, with his legs and timing back, Vick has run for two scores and thrown for one, completing three of four passes for 80 yards, rushing seven times for 28 yards.

"They all want the ball," Mornhinweg said yesterday. "Every one of them wants the ball, and those are the types of players we want."

Mornhinweg said he doesn't stand around during games, tallying who has gotten what so far, who might be getting left out.

"I like to use all eligible runners and receivers and do it in sort of a dynamic way," he said. "You have to get the ball to your dynamic players just a little bit more, so I try and do that just a bit, throughout the game."