Eagles Are Eager To Get Jackson, Maclin And Smith On The Field

Despite Michael Vick’s impressive performance in the first drive of last night’s game, the Eagles are eager about getting the probable starters at their wide receiver positions out there on the field.

Last night Jason Avant and Riley Cooper started and played well, but they’re not likely to be starting any games during the season.

The probable starter at flanker, DeSean Jackson, who was on the team’s sidelines last night, is expected to practice on Saturday. The possible starter on the other side, Jeremy Maclin went to St. Louis a few days ago to undergo more tests to find out what illness he’s facing.

The recently-signed Steve Smith, who was also on the Eagles sidelines last night, is in the midst of rehabilitating his knee, which underwent microfracture surgery this past December.

Jackson played catch with Vick the last couple of days and will be worked into the lineup starting tomorrow morning. He held out to get a new contract and it hasn’t been worked out just yet, but the sides are talking.

As for Maclin, the saga of this mystery illness continues. Despite being in the dark concerning the sickness, his coaches and teammates are talking positive but they still can’t explain why because they don’t know the illness he’s battling.

“I think he’s going to be ready,” Reid said. “I guess I’m optimistic. I’m waiting to hear the results, but I’m optimistic.”

Michael Vick expressed a similar positive concern.

“We’re just going to put Jeremy’s situation in the hands of God and it’ll be taken care of. We’ll see what happens and how it goes. We’re pulling for him. We’re optimistic that he’s going to get back at some point in time and we’ll accept him with open arms. We’ll continue to try and build this offense so when he comes back he can fit right in.”

Reid talked about the reason Maclin is having the testing done back in St. Louis.

“He has to have some tests done,” Reid said. “His (surrogate) father is a doctor, so that is actually a comforting feeling. He has someone there that he is very close to, and his dad has a good pulse on things, which we encourage, so that’s where he had some of the tests done.”

Vick responded to a question about when he expected Maclin back in action.

“I don’t know. I can’t answer that question. I don’t know the situation or what is exactly causing the sickness. So I think you’ll have to talk to our team doctors about that.”

As for the recently signed former New York Giants receiver, Reid described his surgery, the condition of his knee and their plan to get him back on the field.

“He had a small microfracture, but all of his ligaments and cartilage was intact,” Reid said. “His knee is very stable, and he’s had no swelling in his knee throughout the whole process. He’s been running, and he starting running routes this past week.

“We’re just going to bring him back slowly and see what he can do. We’ll get him in a formal rehab with [trainer] Rick [Burkholder] and see exactly where he’s at. It could be three weeks, I don’t know. I have to see how he does here. We know he’s a fine football player, and we just need to get his leg where it needs to be.”

Vick is eager to get him in the lineup because he knows it will mean another weapon which the opposing defense will have to game plan against.

“Having Steve is going to be a great addition”, Vick said after the game. “In conjunction with the other guys we have I think he’ll be able to make great contributions to our offense and whatever package that he’s in. I just think that he poses another threat. So as many weapons as we get, we’ll use. Our plan is to use him.”