Eagles linebacker Jason Phillips went down today with a torn ACL in his right knee and will miss the 2013 season.

The 27-year-old was added as a free agent this offseason, in large part for his special-teams prowess. Phillips led the Carolina Panthers last year with 16 special-teams tackles. Today’s injury occurred during a kickoff coverage drill.

Phillips figured to add depth behind DeMeco Ryans and Mychal Kendricks, but the Eagles will now have to look elsewhere for that.

Today’s running diary of Eagles practice observations, including Chip Kelly’s new scoring system.

Chip Kelly has watched film of the 2012 Eagles. He knows what pretty much everyone else knows: that this was the worst-tackling team in football.

And that’s no exaggeration. According to Football Outsiders, the defense missed a tackle on 8.5 percent of its plays, the highest mark in the league. It wasn’t just last year, either. In 2011, the Eagles missed a tackle on 8.1 percent of their plays, second-worst.

But so far, Kelly has chosen not to do any tackling to the ground during training camp. And that’s not going to change.

The video montage that played prior to Donovan McNabb‘s retirement ceremony stirred old memories, and refreshed  you on how good No. 5 was when he was in his prime. The stats that flashed on the screen reminded you that he is the franchise leader in every major passing category, and may very well be the greatest quarterback in Eagles history. The glowing words from Brian Dawkins and Brian Westbrook and Jeffrey Lurie showed the kind of respect he has earned from some of the franchise’s keepers. And the tears that welled up in the quarterback’s eyes suggested that his time here meant more to him than he’d like to let on.

Viewed from this angle, it makes perfect sense that the team would decide to honor McNabb by retiring his jersey. They will do so on September 19 when the Eagles host Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs.

But as we know, McNabb’s time in Philadelphia can not be looked at from one angle alone. Like a prism, you can examine his career from a slightly different vantage point and a burst of new colors will be introduced.

At the time, the 1999 draft was considered to be a great opportunity for teams to find their franchise quarterbacks.

Five of the top 12 picks were signal-callers: Tim Couch (No. 1), McNabb (No. 2), Akili Smith (No. 3), Daunte Culpepper (No. 11) and Cade McNown (No. 12).

But the way Jeffrey Lurie tells it, the only one the Eagles thought was worthy of the second pick was McNabb.

“I remember it like it was yesterday, the details, amazing,” Lurie said. “It was dubbed as sort of the year of the franchise quarterback. New Coach Andy [Reid] was here. We were interviewing all together and very intensely every one of these quarterbacks and the top pl

Michael Vick singled out Russell Shepard on Saturday, saying that out of all the young receivers, he is the one that has stood out the most.

Little did Vick know how much that would mean to the undrafted rookie out of LSU. Shepard played quarterback through high school. Guess who he tried to emulate on the field?

“My whole persona and way I played the football game was to be like Michael Vick,” said the Texas native following Sunday’s practice at the Linc.  “For my idol, my favorite player of all time, my mentor to say some good things about me, words can’t explain the way that makes me feel.”

Riley Cooper finds himself in a difficult spot that is all too familiar to NFL players.

On one hand, he just witnessed his good friend Jeremy Maclin go down with a torn ACL, ending his season. Cooper said he “almost shed a tear” for his fellow wide receiver on the practice field Saturday.

But as is always the case in football, it’s next man up. And that means Cooper, entering his fourth NFL season, will get a chance to earn significant playing time in Maclin’s place.

The Eagles practiced in front of 30,000 fans at the Linc Sunday afternoon. Here’s what we saw.

Jeremy Maclin took us inside the moment when his season came suddenly to an end.

He had made it just a few steps off the line of scrimmage and said his foot “basically” got caught in the turf. He tried to go left, his right leg didn’t want him to, and he felt it pop before falling to the ground.

“I was devastated,” said Maclin, who addressed reporters in the Lincoln Financial Field tunnel Sunday. “It wasn’t the fact that it hurt, it was the fact that I knew what happened so I was emotional, knowing what was at stake. This is something that I love to do, I love to play football and knowing that I’m not going to be able to do that, knowing that I’m not going to be a part of this new era here in Philly this year. Hopefully I’ll be around for a few more years to come. I’m going to rehab, get stronger and be better than I was before.”

Will the Eagles look outside the organization to help fill the void created by the loss of Jeremy Maclin? Perhaps eventually. But for now, Howie Roseman seems to be searching in-house for answers.

“We have a lot of faith in our skill position players as a whole and that’s how we look at it. We’re not only looking at just our wide receiver group, we’re looking at the running backs, we look at the tight ends, and those are the guys we have high expectations for,” said Roseman. “That’s what camps for — the competition — and that’s why we brought in people to compete.

“We’re always going to explore options and see if there are ways to improve our roster, but right now we’re excited about some of the young guys we have at those positions we just talked about.”

Donovan McNabb will formally announce his retirement as an Eagle on Monday, July 29th, the team announced. He and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie will hold a press conference at the NovaCare Complex at 10 am.

McNabb is the team’s all-time leader in every major passing category, including attempts (4,746), completions (2,801), yards (32,873), and touchdowns (216). He led the team to 91 regular season and nine playoff wins over  11 years in Philadelphia.

The Eagles traded him to the Redskins after the 2009 season. In a recent interview with Philly Mag, he gave the impression that there are some lingering hard feelings.

The Eagles were dealt their first big blow of the summer, losing Jeremy Maclin for the season with a torn ACL injury Saturday.

Entering the final year of his deal, Maclin was committed to proving his worth on the field this offseason.

“I think Jeremy Maclin has emerged as one of the hardest-working guys on our team,” Michael Vick said last month at Maclin’s football camp in West Deptford, N.J. “You watch him in the weight room, he goes in there and he’s just a different person there. So I think that’ll translate over to the field.”

Instead, Maclin faces surgery and a grueling rehab regimen away from his teammates in the months ahead.

In the past three seasons, Maclin has averaged 67 catches, 893 yards and seven touchdowns. So how will the Eagles replace that production in 2013? Here’s a look at their current options on the roster.

Chip Kelly told reporters Friday that if he calls 20 read-option plays with Nick Foles at quarterback, he should be fired.

That doesn’t mean he won’t run it all with No. 9 under center.

“Even if I am [the quarterback] I feel like we’ll still run it,” said Foles following Saturday’s practice. “I’m capable of getting five to ten yards and extending the play, maybe more if the Red Sea parts. I feel comfortable going. That’s part of the offense, that’s part of what we’re going to do, so I feel comfortable doing it and I’m willing to do it. I’m excited to go out there and do it and show my athletic ability.”

Michael Vick was the quarterback when Jeremy Maclin went to the ground during 7-on-7’s.

“I saw it out of the corner of my eye,” said Vick following Saturday’s practice. “I saw him fall. And usually when a guy falls like that, it’s something to be worried about. But hopefully everything will work out.”

The official word from the Eagles is that Maclin has a right knee injury and is still being evaluated. They are awaiting results of an MRI.

Jeremy Maclin left Eagles practice this afternoon with an injury during 7-on-7 drills.