After playing in three games during his rookie season of 2008, but none last season, Mike McGlynn is itching to get back on the football field.

The 6-4, 315-pound guard/center split the first-team reps at the center position with Nick Cole at the post-draft mini-camp. Jamaal Jackson, the team's full-time center since 2006, is rehabbing from reconstructive knee surgery and will not be available until mid-August at the earliest.

Head coach Andy Reid said that Cole will be the starting center as long as Jackson is out. The Eagles simply want to see what McGlynn is capable of doing.

"I'm looking at it as an opportunity. All of those reps I get against the ones is an opportunity to show my talent and I'm taking it as an opportunity to play," McGlynn said. "I take it as getting as many reps as I can with those guys is always a plus. It's an opportunity for me to show my talent. These opportunities don't come by very often so you want to take advantage of them when they do."

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg wants to find a stopgap at the center position and left the door open for McGlynn to possibly be the glue.

"That is the one (position), right here, right now, that we would like to solidify at some point," Mornhinweg said. "I think McGlynn's got a great opportunity here."

The former fourth-round pick was encouraged that the Eagles didn't use one of its 13 draft picks on the offensive line.

"We've been in here working hard," McGlynn said. "It's always a good sign when they don't draft a lot of guys because they think we're doing our jobs and we're coming along, so I thought it was a good sign for us."

McGlynn will continue to toil and get on the same page with the Eagles quarterbacks, learning how they want the ball snapped to them and making sure they see the same things in regards to protections and schemes. Come late July, it will be interesting to see if McGlynn can do anything to change Reid's mind regarding the state of the center position.

-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 11:55 a.m., May 5