Jeremy Maclin announced on twitter that he has returned to Lehigh and joined the Eagles at training camp. Maclin had been excused from the first four days of practice for what had been called an undisclosed illness. He had reportedly come down with mono-like symptoms earlier in the offseason and lost almost 15 pounds, but said that he’d gotten better and gained the weight back. In fact, he was one on the Eagles spending the most time working out at the little camps in South Jersey.
So it was certainly a surprise when he didn’t show up to camp this year and so far we still have no idea what actually held him out. It’s likely we’ll find out tomorrow when practice resumes and he is likely out on the field.
With Maclin’s return and Danny Watkins’ signing, that leaves only one prominent Eagle not up at camp, DeSean Jackson. There have been reports that he will show up this week, but so far we have not seen him. Reportedly, they’ve told him that they’ll only negotiate a new deal if he’s here.
The official league calender identifies August 9th as the day players must report to camp in order to accrue a year of service towards free agency. While that date is in question, what it means is that if DeSean doesn’t report by then he will not earn a year toward free agency and therefore will be a restricted free agent at the end of this year. Clearly, he does not want that.