Desean Jackson

On any given day during the last several seasons you might have found five or six Eagles sprawled out in their locker stalls catching some midday zzzzs. In most cases, the players would build themselves a makeshift bed with pillow, their heads covered with a shirt or some other piece of clothing, their outstretched legs obstructing passage through the narrow lockerroom at the NovaCare Complex. There were other places to sleep - the lounge, the trainer's room - and, it seemed, plenty of opportunities for exhausted players to nap under Andy Reid.

DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin have spent their careers playing under the same head coach, offensive coordinator, and position coach. They have started together for four seasons, but the offense they're learning now under coach Chip Kelly is considerably different from what they've done in the past. Among the changes: how they receive the play and how they run their routes. Instead of going to the huddle to hear the play from the quarterback, they get directions signaled from the sideline.

  DeSean Jackson thought the NFL would be different. He thought he would just show up Sundays, play football for the love of the game - as he always had - maybe dazzle fans with a couple of jaw-dropping touchdowns, and that would be it. "You get here, and it's the opposite of that," Jackson said. "It's almost like a rude awakening. It's a real business. When you're in college you're just like, 'I can't wait to get to the NFL. I'm going to be getting paid.' But once you get here, everything's totally different.

After playing it straight with the press concerning the past and future of Donovan McNabb, star Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson yesterday dished to the radio station that pays him, 97.5-FM, "The Fanatic. " "It was time for a change," said Jackson - a shot, clearly, at McNabb. "We've got some young players here. I'm just excited about everything. " McNabb's criticism of the Eagles' young players in the regular-season loss in Dallas caused Jackson, in his second season, to bristle.

DURING ITS offseason, NFL.com manufactures creative ways to keep readers interested. It's perfectly normal, and something the Daily News does every summer. We call it the Eagles' training-camp guide. Anyway, one of the things the NFL website did this spring was to put 64 of its greatest plays in a bracket and have readers vote on their favorites. The span went from Bill Osmanski's touchdown run in the 1940 championship game to Jacoby Jones' touchdown catch in the most recent Super Bowl.

SPEAKING for the masses, DeSean Jackson said, "Today I felt we were in great shape being up 23-3 - the second half was just brutal. " On a day when Jackson caught six passes for 171 yards, and dropped a couple of others, the Eagles still blew a 20-point lead and lost to the 49ers, 24-23. The team's third consecutive loss, and third consecutive second-half collapse, colored everything, even his personal success. Bittersweet, as the lady once said. "It was just that they were able to put points on the board [in the second half]

Poor Donovan McNabb. After one season with the best wide-receiving tandem he had as an Eagle, he gets traded to the Washington Redskins. Kevin Kolb will be the beneficiary of what has the potential to the top wide-receiver twosome in Eagles history. DeSean Jackson was a star from the start. Injuries made him the first rookie receiver to start a season opener under Andy Reid, but Jackson's six catches for 106 yards against the St. Louis Rams was a sign of things to come. Jackson set an Eagles rookie record with 62 catches and 912 receiving yards.

Once more, DeSean Jackson answered questions about his contract. Only this time, he did it with a smile and with certainty. With his future in Philadelphia secure, the dynamic wide receiver offered bold predictions of success for himself and his team. "I have five bright years to look forward to. In one of those years, I'm going to guarantee a Super Bowl because we've been close the past four years," Jackson said Thursday, a day after agreeing to a five-year contract with the team that drafted him in 2008.

In late April, when the cancer that had invaded Bill Jackson's pancreas spread, DeSean Jackson had his father relocated from Long Beach, Calif., to Philadelphia. From peewee football through DeSean's tenure at the University of California, Bill Jackson was a staple at his son's games. However, after DeSean, a wide receiver, was drafted by the Eagles last year, the bicoastal travel prevented the elder Jackson from attending most of the games during his son's breakout rookie season.

ST. LOUIS - The outside noise has been particularly noisome lately for DeSean Jackson, what with other players successfully getting contracts negotiated, and Terrell Owens going on the radio and saying he shouldn't be risking injury without a new deal, and an unusual number of typists and talkers attempting to read his mind. Keeping the sideshow separate from his business is Jackson's full-time job now, and will continue to be for as long as he is ridiculously underpaid and without a new contract.

Jeremy Maclin was recently asked about Chip Kelly's offense and which skill-position players would thrive in it. The Eagles wide receiver did not mention obvious names such as DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, or even himself. He singled out Damaris Johnson, the small and speedy receiver who made the roster last season as an undrafted rookie but hardly did enough to suggest a quantum leap in Year 2. Kelly's offense, though, offers a new dynamic. While details such as scheme and starting quarterback are great unknowns, the players, after more than a month of workouts, have intimated that they know enough about the offense to project.

This is a post by Les Bowen on Eagletarian, the Daily News' Eagles blog .   AT THE CONCLUSION of the Eagles' Academy for Men yesterday, at the indoor NovaCare field, participants' parting gifts included a posterized version of that amazing, reach-back onehanded catch Jason Avant made on the sideline Dec. 9 at Tampa Bay in the Birds' only post-September win. Interesting choice, in that new coach Chip Kelly has had Avant practicing some...

On any given day during the last several seasons you might have found five or six Eagles sprawled out in their locker stalls catching some midday zzzzs. In most cases, the players would build themselves a makeshift bed with pillow, their heads covered with a shirt or some other piece of clothing, their outstretched legs obstructing passage through the narrow lockerroom at the NovaCare Complex. There were other places to sleep - the lounge, the trainer's room - and, it seemed, plenty of opportunities for exhausted players to nap under Andy Reid.

DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin have spent their careers playing under the same head coach, offensive coordinator, and position coach. They have started together for four seasons, but the offense they're learning now under coach Chip Kelly is considerably different from what they've done in the past. Among the changes: how they receive the play and how they run their routes. Instead of going to the huddle to hear the play from the quarterback, they get directions signaled from the sideline.

Part Two of a Series The Eagles are amid their first organized team activities this week, and they will practice throughout the next four weeks. After those practices, Chip Kelly will have a better idea of the Eagles roster. But there's a lot that will happen between now and then. To get you up to date, The Inquirer is spending two weeks assessing where the Eagles stand at each spot. Jeff McLane started on Monday with offensive line. Here are wide receivers: Projected current first team WR1: Jeremy Maclin (6-foot-0, 198 pounds, age 25, 5th season)

IT LOOKED like a gaggle of third-base coaches relaying signs to a batter. Three Eagles' staffers, along with wideout Ifeanyi Momah, who had the day off from practice after going hard all weekend in rookie camp, waggled fingers behind their heads, tapped their arms, and carved designs in the air. As the offensive players on the field regrouped from the play they'd just run, every head turned to the sideline. Everyone seemed to be getting his assignment this way; no one huddled, and the players lined up within 10 seconds or less to snap the ball again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Philly rapper Meek Mill , who turned 26 yesterday. Mill jet-setted out to Vegas, where he celebrated on Sunday night. Lucky for you, one of my spies filled me in on the action. Mill hit up the Hard Rock Hotel's Rehab pool party, hosted by Philly's own DJ Drama . A-listers abounded, including Diddy , Kelly Rowland , boxer Adrien Broner and rapper Fabolous . Even though Mill stepped to Vegas to celebrate his birth, he brought out the Philly stars in full force, including the Cleveland Cavaliers' Dion Waiters , boxing champ Danny "Swift" Garcia (who is coming off a win against Zab Judah at the Barclays Center)

ELEVEN YEARS ago, the Eagles hit the trifecta in the second and third rounds of the 2002 draft, selecting Colorado safety Michael Lewis, cornerback Sheldon Brown and a Division 1-AA running back by the name of Brian Westbrook. Lewis spent five seasons with the Eagles, three as a starter. Went to a Super Bowl and Pro Bowl with the Birds. Brown was a rock at right corner for the franchise, starting 98 games in eight seasons and helping the Eagles advance to five NFC Championship Games.

"Don't be shocked if the Eagles take Tavon Austin" - the "dimunitive" receiver/runner/returner out of West Virginia - with the fourth pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday night. That's what a GM said, ESPN's Sal Paolantonio told Mike Missanelli late yesterday afternoon on 97.5 The Fanantic. And Paolantonio endorsed the idea. "Tavon Austin, to me, is a top 5 player in this draft," he said. ". . . I think Austin could fit, and I think people want to see excitement on offense. They're tired of the same old dull offense that's been around here for 14 years.

The Eagles' newest player is a real powerhouse. The stats are electrifying: On a recent sunny day, this bulky unit churned out 21,033.7 kilowatt hours, nearly enough to power two average homes for a year. Yes, the long-awaited solar panels and wind turbines at Lincoln Financial Field are up and running. More than 11,000 panels have been positioned atop the roof, over some of the parking spots, and armoring the side of the building along I-95. Those are the workhorses.