Jeremy Maclin

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.

ATLANTA - Jeremy Maclin had his coming out party Sunday night. The rest of the nation found out what Philadelphia has known for a year now: The Eagles wide receiver is a budding star. Yes, the Eagles already have a superstar wideout in DeSean Jackson. But on a night when Jackson was held in check, Maclin carried the pass-catchers - until the bitter end. Unfortunately, his effort was all for naught as the Eagles fell to the Falcons, 35-31, at the Georgia Dome, and when the team needed him most Maclin couldn't hold onto a Mike Kafka throw over the middle on fourth down with less than two minutes remaining.

Like birds that headed south for winter, the Eagles' offensive skill players are slowly migrating back to the Philadelphia area. Instead of gathering at the NovaCare Complex, however, they're assembling in Cherry Hill at ever-popular Power Train Sports. Quarterback Michael Vick and wide receiver Jeremy Maclin are the latest to enlist trainer Steve Saunders in their offseason workouts, joining tight end Brent Celek and a handful of other Eagles. Running back LeSean McCoy will join the flock next week.

The two fumbled punts were concern enough for Eagles special-teams coordinator Ted Daisher to pull his rookie returner, Jeremy Maclin, aside for a meeting Saturday. Daisher has seen young, electric returners struggle initially but prosper later, like Cleveland's Josh Cribbs. Yes, there is a learning process. But Daisher needed to set the record straight with Maclin right away. "You can't make a big play every time you touch the ball," Maclin recalled Daisher saying. "Sometimes you have to do the right thing.

LeSean McCoy agreed to a four-year contract with the Eagles yesterday, ensuring that Brian Westbrook's projected backup will be in training camp. The terms were not disclosed. A second-round draft pick, the elusive running back from Pittsburgh is seen as an insurance policy for Westbrook, who underwent ankle surgery June 5. "I think he can do the same types of things that Brian can do," general manager Tom Heckert told the Eagles' Web site. "We think he's an all-around player, and we think he can step right in and help us out. He's a great receiver out of the backfield.

As soon as Jeremy Maclin signed his rookie contract early yesterday afternoon at Lehigh University, the Eagles' first-round pick became an instant multimillionaire. That must have seemed like an impossible dream a decade ago when he was a kid dealing with a dysfunctional family life in St. Louis. Maclin, the 19th overall selection in this year's draft, was abandoned by his father and had a difficult relationship with his mother before moving in with the family of his peewee football coach during his sophomore year of high school.

The Eagles can't even win the championship of weight loss. On Tuesday night's Biggest Loser finale, live on NBC, former offensive lineman Antone Davis pushed his blubber burnoff to a whopping 202 pounds. If current receiver Jeremy Maclin lost even 198 pounds, he'd weigh nothing. Eleven teammates would vanish even sooner. But Arizona special ed teacher John Rhode shed 220 pounds, and a greater percentage of weight, to snag the show's $250,000 top prize. Finishing third was Ramone Medeiros, a Colorado tattoo artist, who lost 154 pounds.

Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin has been downgraded from probable to questionable because of the hamstring injury that has kept him out of the last three games. He traveled with the team to Miami on Saturday. Maclin said all week that he expected to play Sunday and was a full practice participant Friday. Coach Andy Reid did not mention any setbacks in his Friday news conference. Maclin's downgraded status means he will probably be a game-time decision. - Jonathan Tamari

  First live play of the morning, Donovan McNabb checked down to Shady McCoy for a dumpoff, McCoy with plenty of room to ramble, but McNabb missed him, setting the tone for an off-key workout. Asante Samuel dropped a McNabb pick. Quintin Mikell broke up a bomb intended for Jeremy Maclin. Sheldon Brown fell awkwardly after going up with Maclin for a jump ball. Brown was shaken up but returned to practice. Ellis Hobbs tipped away a goal-line-drill pass from McNabb to Maclin that might have been underthrown.

BETHLEHEM - Wideouts are pro football's divas, and Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson seemed to be having some sort of minor spat toward the end of yesterday's morning practice. Maclin was speaking animatedly and Jackson was shaking his head. They walked off the field together, apparently having patched it up. Jackson still isn't talking to reporters, but Maclin said later that the dispute wasn't serious. "It's training camp, man," he said. "Just a mixup. It was nothing major, man. "It's over and done with.

Have you seen DeSean Jackson's new hip-hop video? It's awesome in the same way that Roadhouse is an awesome movie. (You can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdRPB_Fe3ZI . Warning: Gold chains are flashed, keg cups are drank , women are degraded. You know, your typical rap video.) "On My Dip" opens with Jackson wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers cap and rapper Gillie Da Kid - a.k.a. "King of Philly" - wearing a black Phillies cap. They switch hats and the Southern California-born Jackson, now with the Phils lid, nods affirmatively at the camera.

Plaxico Burress told ESPN-FM 97.5 on Tuesday that "nothing else would make me happier" than to play for the Eagles. The New York Jets receiver, who is set to become a free agent on March 13, echoed statements that he made several times last offseason when he was unemployed, out of prison and looking for a job. Despite that campaign - and the lobbying of his friend, quarterback Michael Vick - the Eagles chose not to sign Burress. He said there was a "a lot of interest" from the Eagles last July, but apparently they didn't believe he was worth the $3 million the Jets eventually shelled out in a one-year deal.

Here are some observations and ruminations about Sunday's Eagles-Redskins game: When you put Jeremy Maclin's season in perspective, a few dropped passes pale in comparison to his scare with cancer. But we're writing about football here, and while the wide receiver took another step toward becoming a Pro Bowler, he had a number of forgetful moments this season. The late dropped pass against the Falcons and the late fumble against the 49ers were the headliners, but Maclin added another to the list Sunday against the Redskins when he dropped a sure touchdown pass from a scrambling Michael Vick.

IF THERE still was any doubt that DeSean Jackson will be playing somewhere else next season, it was effectively erased Monday near the end of Andy Reid's 15-minute news conference. A reporter mentioned that Jackson, who will be a free agent after the season, had said after Saturday's win over the Cowboys that he "hopefully" will be back with the Eagles in 2012. Asked if that feeling was reciprocated by himself and the organization, Reid damned the two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver with faint praise.

NOBODY USUALLY notices a kicker until he screws up. The fact that we've really only noticed Alex Henery twice this season is a pretty good indication that the rookie out of Nebraska has had a pretty good year. The two times we've noticed him came in the same quarter of the same game. The fourth quarter of the Eagles' 24-23, Week 4 loss to the 49ers. Henery, who was the most accurate kicker in college football history, had a chance to turn a fragile, six-point lead into a comfy, nine-point advantage early in the fourth quarter, but sent a 39-yard field-goal attempt wide right.

The Eagles are all in . Amid a rush of stunning free-agent signings, I typed out those words one late July evening in a cramped, overly air-conditioned trailer set up next to the team's Lehigh University practice fields. A short time earlier, the Eagles had swooped in to sign Nnamdi Asomugha, widely considered the prize of free agency and a name at the top of many fans' wish lists. The phrase - which gained traction when it was repeated by team president Joe Banner - was meant to capture the bold aims of late July, when within two days the Eagles traded for Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, signed Jason Babin and Vince Young, and then topped themselves by adding Asomugha.

The Eagles can't even win the championship of weight loss. On Tuesday night's Biggest Loser finale, live on NBC, former offensive lineman Antone Davis pushed his blubber burnoff to a whopping 202 pounds. If current receiver Jeremy Maclin lost even 198 pounds, he'd weigh nothing. Eleven teammates would vanish even sooner. But Arizona special ed teacher John Rhode shed 220 pounds, and a greater percentage of weight, to snag the show's $250,000 top prize. Finishing third was Ramone Medeiros, a Colorado tattoo artist, who lost 154 pounds.

Eagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin has been downgraded from probable to questionable because of the hamstring injury that has kept him out of the last three games. He traveled with the team to Miami on Saturday. Maclin said all week that he expected to play Sunday and was a full practice participant Friday. Coach Andy Reid did not mention any setbacks in his Friday news conference. Maclin's downgraded status means he will probably be a game-time decision. - Jonathan Tamari

Michael Vick is back. Cue "Ode to Joy. " OK, so Vick hasn't been that good this season, and Vince Young wasn't as bad as some have suggested - he did engineer an 18-play, game-winning drive against the New York Giants last month. But if the Eagles are to have any chance of closing out the 2011 season with four straight victories, they need the 2010 Vick, specifically the one from the first half of last season. We've seen glimpses of that quarterback this season.

The text message from Jeremy Maclin told David Culley that something was very wrong. "The text said, 'Coach, I'm very concerned about my health.' Period. Nothing else was there," recalled Culley, the Eagles wide receivers coach. "Although you can't feel a text, I felt just from what he said to me, there's something seriously wrong with him. " The confidence Culley knew so well was missing. By the time Maclin sent that message, he was well into a harrowing summer that involved no fewer than six tests for cancer, hours spent with needles inserted into his chest and back, and a frustrating lack of answers.