Maclin & the Eagles' overhauled receiving corps

THE LAST TIME Jeremy Maclin played in a game that counted was on Dec. 30, 2012 at the Giants. The Eagles lost, 42-7, with Maclin scoring their only touchdown. Afterward, Andy Reid, even more ruddy-faced than usual from a bitter wind, held what everyone understood was going to be his final Eagles postgame news conference.

Maclin found himself answering questions that day about whether his teammates had quit, in losing 11 of their final 12 games.

"I don't want to say so. Then again, I'm not them, so I don't know," Maclin said in the visitors' locker room.

A lot has happened since that day, to Maclin and to the Eagles. The questions yesterday had a much more hopeful tone, as Maclin prepared to play his first real game under Chip Kelly, Sunday at home against Jacksonville.

The Eagles are coming off a 10-6 season and a playoff appearance, something Maclin watched from afar, rehabbing the torn ACL he'd suffered on the first day of full-squad workouts at Kelly's initial training camp. Maclin wasn't able to participate in the turnaround.

"I was happy the way we dug out of that hole as a team," Maclin said. "I was happy for everybody who was out there, but at the same time, I wanted to be part of that. It was mixed emotions, but I'm a team guy."

(Somewhere, Wilma McNabb is thinking that having mixed emotions about the team's success in your absence and finding it "bittersweet" are pretty much the same thing. But Maclin, who got here in 2009, would have no idea what you were talking about if you brought that up. Time marches on.)

Maclin leads a wide-receiving group that might be the Eagles' most dramatically changed unit from 2013 to 2014. Only Riley Cooper returns from last season's top triumvirate of DeSean Jackson, Cooper and Jason Avant. Second-round draftee Jordan Matthews, inheriting Avant's slot role, figures to carry the heaviest load Sunday of any Eagles rookie.

Maclin and Cooper both missed significant preseason time, and third-round rookie Josh Huff, envisioned as a contributor when training camp began, suffered a shoulder injury midway through a pretty quiet training camp. Huff isn't practicing yet and is not expected to play Sunday.

The Eagles have projected nothing but confidence in this group, but there was a telling tidbit to be gleaned from yesterday's Washington Post profile of ESPN uber-insider Adam Schefter: In the second paragraph, Post reporter Rick Maese recounts Schefter telling an AFC executive on the phone about the Titans and the Eagles being teams that are "very anxious" to trade for a wide receiver.

The front office and coaching staff certainly hope Maclin returns to the form that netted him 258 catches through his first four seasons, the most by any player in his first four seasons in the history of the franchise. Like you, though, they saw him tumble to the turf against Pittsburgh Aug. 21, after twisting his repaired knee, and like you, they were pretty sure they had just witnessed a devastating reinjury. They hadn't and you hadn't, but we'll all surely be watching for Maclin to get up every time he goes down this week, and for weeks to come.

Fun fact: After Maclin, the Eagles' six-member wideout corps has exactly 200 career NFL receptions - 196 of them by Cooper (93) and Brad Smith (103).

This is the place in the story where we insert the boilerplate paragraph you've read several times now about how running back Darren Sproles and emerging tight end Zach Ertz will take some of the pressure off the wideouts, but still - it would be nice to see somebody in the group emerge as a feared weapon.

"I think the pieces fit together really well," Maclin said. "Especially with what we do here. You got a versatile guy in Zach. You got two running backs who can catch the ball. A guy like me who can pretty much do anything they ask him to do. Cooper on the other side. Jordan, who has a promising future. So I don't think we're going to miss a beat. No disrespect to DeSean and Avant, both tremendous players. But I'm very confident in our group right now. I think we'll definitely be something special."

Maclin cautioned reporters yesterday not to think they have a fix on the Eagles' 2014 offense from what they saw in the preseason. (As Sproles did the day before.)

"There's a lot more, especially as far as plays that we can do. We didn't throw the ball down the field at all during preseason," he said. "You don't show your whole hand in the preseason . . . The offense is going to keep evolving."

Maclin mentioned that he recently "got off the treatment list," meaning that Maclin no longer has to report to the trainers' room for any sort of maintenance work on his knee. "The thing is completely healed," he said.

Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur yesterday said he was confident Maclin and Cooper are not only healthy but sharp enough for the regular season, despite preseason time missed.

"These are guys that have played in the NFL for multiple years," Shurmur said. "They understand what it takes to be ready to go. They're comfortable in our system, and they're ready to play."

Cooper, whose 47 catches last season more than doubled his career high, said Maclin "attacks the ball. He has great hands. He can run with anybody, and all of his routes are crisp. He's just an all-around great player; he's one of the top wideouts in the league. He's going to do a lot of special things this year . . . He can block the perimeter, he can run perimeter plays. He's kind of just the total package. It helps that he's real smart, so he can play anywhere on the field."

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian