Mac Update

Posted: June 5th, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 48 Comments »

There just might be a Jeremy Maclin reunion, only not the one many of you were hoping for.

I don’t know who Jordan Schultz is and can’t vouch for his credibility, but this makes total sense. Sean McDermott is the head coach in Buffalo and knows Maclin from their time together in Philly. There is also some guy named Shady McCoy who plays for the Bills. He is actively recruiting Maclin to head to western New York.

The Bills could use Maclin. They have Sammy Watkins as their primary WR. He is a terrific deep threat, but has never caught more than 65 passes in a season. Rookie Zay Jones could play the slot and that would leave an open spot for Maclin on the outside, where he is most comfortable.

Nothing has happened yet so we’ll have to wait and see how things play out. Maclin doesn’t need to make a hasty decision. He may want to consider his options.

Maclin hated leaving Philly. This organization drafted him and he liked living here. He went to KC for the money (and that area was near where he grew up in St. Louis). It is possible Maclin may want to come back to Philly.

In terms of the Eagles wanting Maclin, we don’t know anything for sure. If you want to boil things down to a basic level, Maclin would be the second best receiver on the team. Jordan Matthews is younger and put up better numbers last year, but Maclin has better hands and is still faster. Matthews is a good fit for this team because he is so good in the slot.

Maclin did play some in the slot the last two years, but he will never be mistaken for Anquan Boldin in terms of toughness or physicality. Maclin wants to make plays and is best when he’s got some space. He isn’t going to thrive when playing in traffic all game long.

Torrey Smith is a speed guy. You want him on the outside.

It really seems that if the Eagles wanted Maclin, they’d have to cut Smith. That would free up some money and a spot in the offense for him. That just doesn’t seem likely, but never say never. In the end, this most likely will come down to money and there are other teams who can outspend the Eagles so all the discussion of playing time and how to use receivers will be moot.

*****

For those of you not on Twitter…Chris Long is one funny guy.

It took me a minute to realize that was Chris with the Delta logo. That is brilliant.

I hope he plays well. Seems like the kind of guy you want to pull for. Connor Barwin was that guy last year, but just didn’t get the job done on the field.

_


48 Comments on “Mac Update”

  1. 1 FairOaks said at 9:10 AM on June 5th, 2017:

    I still don’t see it, simply based on who the Eagles have right now (and wouldn’t want to cut), and also it seems like a terrible salary cap match for what Maclin is likely able to get from another team. Last year, would have been all over it. And maybe in March, the situation changes all around again. But right now… seems unlikely to be a match with the Eagles.

  2. 2 Media Mike said at 6:40 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    That about sums it up!

  3. 3 izzylangfan said at 10:17 AM on June 5th, 2017:

    Just looking back the last time Mac was a free agent, it seemed that Mac was still upset from the draft when he fell from maybe 7 to I think 19 where the Eagles drafted him. Mac wanted the Eagles to pay up since that fall cost him a lot of money. But the Eagles had no flexibility because of the way the NFL slots draftees contracts. So when he finally became a free agent he went with KC who was willing to overpay by outbidding the Eagles by maybe $1 million a year. KC was desperate as it had a dearth of receiving talent and Mac felt comfortable with old friend Andy Reid. But guess what, Mac was overpaid so he got cut by his old friend, screwed really – since the free agent period has run most of its course. Maybe Philly was overpaying too and he would have been cut if he signed with the Eagles, but I think probably not since Maclin is still good and the Eagles could still use him.

  4. 4 Bert's Bells said at 11:04 AM on June 5th, 2017:

    If Maclin re-signed with the Eagles, they probably wouldn’t have drafted Agholor.

  5. 5 FairOaks said at 11:19 AM on June 5th, 2017:

    Definitely not. And that would have not given them the money to sign Murray, either — nobody knew at the time what the cascading effect would be.

    The Eagles would likely not have gone after Jeffery this year, probably, unless they were going to cut Maclin too. But they were still hard up under the cap last year so they would have had to make another significant cut in order to keep Maclin. With hindsight, if that was not signing Curry, may have worked out for the best. But it may have been offensive player(s). Chase Daniel would have also been nice to not sign, but that would have only gotten you halfway to Mac’s cap number. Peters? Those are the tough choices. In the end, no way the Eagles could have kept DeSean, LeSean, and Maclin together along with a QB.

    And on the other hand, if Agholor had worked out as a #1 receiver… we would still have him cheap and would not have needed to pay Jeffery and may have had the money to get a CB instead.

  6. 6 ChoTime said at 4:28 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Ags was never projected as a #1 receiver.

  7. 7 FairOaks said at 5:33 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    He was projected as Maclin’s immediate replacement as a guy of the same height, same speed, etc. Unless you have a long-term #1 WR already, not sure what else you would be drafting partway through the first round in a draft.

  8. 8 ChoTime said at 6:33 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    No. If you go back and look at draft analyses, he was commonly projected as a #2 WR, _not_ a #1 receiver. The difference between their physical characteristics was also extreme–Maclin was considered explosive and dynamic, Ags was not. For a gander, google draft or scouting report and just read through a few of them for both. The difference is not subtle. If the Eagles thought he was a plug-in-play #1 receiver, their eval was different than the general consensus.

  9. 9 Sb2bowl said at 11:59 AM on June 5th, 2017:

    It’s amazing to look back and see all of the bone-headed personnel moves that Kelly made in his limited time in Philadelphia.

    The success of Evans, OBJ, Landry, Cooks, and even to a lesser extent, John Brown all skewed Kelly’s thinking with regards to the success that Ags could have immediately. By letting Jackson go, then Maclin- we were doomed.

    DAMMIT. Why did I start thinking about this?

  10. 10 FairOaks said at 3:09 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Kelly tried to keep Agholor. But there was a salary point where it did not make sense. Once he left, he went after a replacement in the draft. The Chiefs were willing to overpay, as they were in even worse shape at WR than we were last year, so they overpaid him for two years while they got a younger corps in place.

  11. 11 Sb2bowl said at 3:43 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    *Maclin.

    No doubt- but there are multiple reports stating that Maclin didn’t feel like he was wanted by Kelly, and he returned to the familiar fold of Reid and that offense. The money helped. Going back to Missouri helped. Reid helped.

    Kelly didn’t, and neither did his frantic pace of practice. The offensive stats were nice, but some players hated that system, and I understand why.

    I believe the Chiefs paid $1m more per year than what we offered, but I’m not sure on the guaranteed money side.

  12. 12 ColorSgt said at 10:15 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Just about everything Kelly did was bad with the exception of sports science and an emphasis on special teams. Those are the only two things I can think of that were positive. Luckily those have both carried into the current era. There are some valuble lessons on what not to do in the NFL, and I think Howie, Joe and Doug are doing a decent job of not letting history repeat itself so far.

  13. 13 Sb2bowl said at 9:56 AM on June 7th, 2017:

    Agreed; those two points alone have added tremendous value to our franchise.

  14. 14 ChoTime said at 12:02 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Dude, armchair psychiatrist much?

  15. 15 Julescat said at 12:07 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    did Maclin take into account the time he was paid by the Eagles while on the sideline missing seasons due to injury? of course not!

    tell Maclin to work out a deal with Buffalo and then shop it to the Eagles to see if they are still interested.

  16. 16 Sean Stott said at 12:49 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Not that it really matters, but Maclin was drafted before those rookie contract limits went into place.

  17. 17 ChoTime said at 12:01 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Receiving plus or minus–comparing how many catches the receiver made based on what an average receiver makes in that situation:

    Some expected members of the bottom 20 in the league: Ags at 72 out of 88, DBG at 81/88 (only 7 WRs in the league were worse!). DeSean managed to be the 20th best at this stat.

    For TEs, Zach Ertz was #1. (Trey Burton was in the bottom 12 in the league, though).

    LeSean top RB in this stat!

    Jeffries nowhere to be seen…

    http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2017/2016-receiving-plus-minus

  18. 18 Dave said at 3:17 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Alshon falls between 21 and 68.

  19. 19 ChoTime said at 6:34 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Er…one would assume?

  20. 20 Dave said at 6:45 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    They ranked all receivers with at least targets. As Alshon had over 90 targets, he would have been on the list. They then showed the top 20 and bottom 20. As he was not on either list, he would have had to have been between the them.

  21. 21 ChoTime said at 7:42 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Yeah, I did figure that out. 🙂

  22. 22 Stephen E. said at 3:19 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I know Burton is at the bottom of the roster, but it’s frustrating how ineffective he really was. He was a solid role player in 2015, looked great in 2016 preseason– didn’t drop a pass– and then proceeded to be as unreliable as the WRs in the regular season. I hope this was just a burp in his development.

  23. 23 Rellihcs said at 3:50 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I believe when you get to the point where you are criticizing a 3rd string TE on a year when he had a rookie HC, rookie QB, and very significant OL woes, you are not splitting hairs, you’re splitting already split hairs.

  24. 24 ChoTime said at 4:26 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Good point, players can’t be evaluated in such an environment. Best thing to do would skip the draft and just all a do-over for the entire roster. /sarcasm font

  25. 25 Rellihcs said at 4:32 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I see your sarcasm font (wish we actually could do that in disquss, but I digress). But the draft already happened. So what’s your point?

    I do think that in “such an environment”, it’s worthless to cherry pick certain stats and conclude “that player just sucked”.

  26. 26 ChoTime said at 6:30 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I think it’s a pretty interesting stat. It compares what a player did in a certain position, say 3rd and 10, to what average players do in that position. Say the average player has an expected gain of 6 yards, and your mister TE3 gained only 4 yards on average. The aggregate stat constitutes some degree of evidence that he underperformed.

    Say on the other hand that the average player on 3rd and 1 gains 2 yards, and the player gained 4 yards on average. That would be some degree of evidence that he performed well.

    It might sound kind of fiddly, but in general, the chart matches up with reputation.

    The same stat applied to QBs showed that Wentz was not good last year, but showed that Sam Bradford was–despite his difficult OL and skill position situation. It’s a very surprising result since Bradford normally looks awful in that kind of analysis. He usually pads his completion% by dinking and dunking, but isn’t any better at it than an average QB. This time, he was.

    On my original post, I pointed out all Eagles-related players. The stat showed that Ags, DBG, and Burton all sucked. It also showed that Ertz (and Lesean McCoy) were great. For whatever negativity such an analysis brings to the table, it also should deliver some hope that Ertz is the damned good TE that he has sometimes looked like.

  27. 27 Rellihcs said at 6:59 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Fair enough. I think that stat is indeed interesting but should be taken along with a heavy dose of context.

  28. 28 Media Mike said at 6:42 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    “DeSean managed to be the 20th best at this stat.”

    Because he’s a really good football player.

  29. 29 xmbk said at 7:37 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    No, he’s really good at one aspect of football. He’s no football player.

  30. 30 Tumtum said at 11:29 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I mean, I didn’t want him back, but he is a kinda a pretty darn good player.

  31. 31 xmbk said at 9:29 AM on June 6th, 2017:

    He can help a team win games. But really good teams aren’t built around players like him, for a couple of reasons.

  32. 32 ChoTime said at 10:15 AM on June 6th, 2017:

    #1 Really good teams are never built around wide receivers.

  33. 33 xmbk said at 6:59 PM on June 6th, 2017:

    Patriots sure looked better with Moss, Eagles with TO. 😉

  34. 34 Insomniac said at 2:27 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I don’t know if it makes sense for the Bills to sign Maclin. Sammy Watkins and Maclin are both talented but often banged up/injured.

  35. 35 FairOaks said at 5:30 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    Mac has been pretty good, if memory serves. He missed four games last year and did deal with an injury other parts of the time, and of course missed all of 2013, but otherwise he’s been pretty available — 15 games in 2015, 16 games in 2014, 15 in 2012.

    Edit: A Buffalo writer looked up the injury history. He’s missed 26 games in his career, with 16 of those being the ACL. 10 games missed total in his seven other seasons. Not sure you can expect much healthier, realistically.

    http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2017/6/5/15739510/jeremy-maclin-buffalo-bills-rumors-injury-history

  36. 36 A_T_G said at 7:35 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I believe Insomniac is quoting from The Narrative of Why We Hate Him: A Collection of Stories. It was popular during Maclin’s time in Philly and had little use for your numbers and facts.

  37. 37 Insomniac said at 8:46 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I don’t see any mention of self tackling in that comment sir.

  38. 38 A_T_G said at 7:17 AM on June 6th, 2017:

    Well played.

  39. 39 Insomniac said at 8:37 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    No his injury history is just part of it. The Bills front office doesn’t look like they want to sign banged up talented WRs. They declined Watkins’s fifth year option and he’s only 23. Why would they have interest in an older and just as injury prone WR?

  40. 40 Dave said at 3:45 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I found this fascinating from the MMQB:

    “We’re past the halfway point of the current CBA, and the agreement has proven over time to work pretty well for both sides. Much of the focus has been on rising player salaries as the salary cap has risen about $47 million since the start of the agreement in 2011, but just as important is the benefits package negotiated between the league and the players’ union. Players become eligible for the pension plan only after playing three seasons, but the payouts are very good for players who make it past that threshold. Here’s a breakdown of the estimated annual post-retirement income for an active player who began his career in 2016.

    • If he takes his benefits starting at age 55: $127,008 (4 credited seasons), $297,204 (7 credited seasons), $441,168 (10 credited seasons)

    • If he takes his benefits starting at age 65: $329,016 (4 credited seasons), $769,236 (7 credited seasons), $1,141,764 (10 credited seasons)”

    http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/06/05/oakland-raiders-jack-del-rio-guest-mmqb-nfl

  41. 41 Media Mike said at 6:41 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    That’s pretty good stuff.

  42. 42 Tumtum said at 11:27 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    You know… this ain’t half bad.

  43. 43 D3FB said at 5:59 AM on June 6th, 2017:

    Whats the life expectancy for alot of these guys though?

    And are these pensions being put in escrow?

  44. 44 Dave said at 7:37 AM on June 6th, 2017:

    Good question, not sure I’ve ever read anything on NFL players life expectancy.

    I would imagine their life expectancy is close to the national average. We hear about about guys with CTE and others that had substance abuse problems, but the NFL doesn’t seem to be like the WWE.

  45. 45 D3FB said at 9:22 AM on June 6th, 2017:

    After 15 minutes of research the jury seems to be out. Alot of they are healthier than the gen pop and dont engage in risky behaviors like smoking vs these guys beat the hell out of each other for a living that can’t be great long term.

    Harvard is currently in the middle of a ten year study so we should have results sometime around 2025

  46. 46 Dave said at 12:40 PM on June 6th, 2017:

    Yeah, I saw the same thing. What I did find seems logical, lineman, who tend to be overweight, have higher incidents of heart disease but everyone else is healthier than the general public.

  47. 47 BobSmith77 said at 8:18 PM on June 5th, 2017:

    I got the sense that Maclin wasn’t that heartbroken to leave here when he did. Went home, got a big paycheck, and played for a head coach he liked.

  48. 48 CrackSammich said at 12:01 AM on June 6th, 2017:

    I’m amazed at all the long term predictions for this team based on Gibson. If you can afford Maclin, you cut Gibson right now.