As noted in the earlier post, Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin did a conference call with Philadelphia area reporters shortly after he was selected. Here is more of what he had to say:

On the way everything worked out:

“I think it worked out for the best. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I can’t complain going to this organization. I think everything happened for the best.”

On his thoughts of the Eagles organization:

“Obviously, nobody likes losing. This organization definitely has a great track record of winning games. They have all the guys in the right spots to be contenders every year. They have one of the best quarterbacks in the league. You have [Brian] Westbrook, you have [Kevin] Curtis, you have DeSean [Jackson]. I couldn’t ask for a better situation.”

On whether he knows WR DeSean Jackson:

“No, not too well. I don’t know him.”

On the chance of playing alongside Jackson for a number of years:

“It’s exciting. You have another guy like that to take pressure off you and you can take pressure off him. He can return kicks, I can return kicks. It’s exciting and it gives defenses more to worry about.”

On whether he had any pre-draft contact with the Eagles:

“Not much. All I had was really the meeting down at the combine.”

On whether he can make the same contributions as Jackson did in his rookie season:

“Yes, sir. I don’t understand why I can’t. My thing is to do everything the coaches ask me to do and to do it to the best of my ability. Whether that is to come out and catch five balls a game, whether it is to come out and catch two balls a game, or just return kicks. I’m thrilled and I’m going to do it to the best of my ability.”

On whether he had expectations of being drafted before the 19th pick and whether he had any team in mind:

“I think I was just being myself. I think a lot of guys go in there and try to put on a front. Try to talk well or try to talk out of their league a little bit and the coach can kind of pick up on that. I think you go in there and be yourself. I went in there and was myself and everything went good ... You hear all that stuff and obviously you see that a lot of people had me projected to go higher. I expected to go, but like I said earlier, I’m a firm believer of everything happens for a reason. Like I said, you can’t expect for a better situation than what I have right now.”

On whether he followed the Eagles in years prior:

“Yeah, I have definitely watched the Eagles a lot. Especially, [Donovan] McNabb has always been one of my favorite quarterbacks and [Brian] Westbrook, a guy who does a lot of different stuff. So, I have always kind of followed them a little bit.”

On being a versatile player:

“I think it’s added value. If you have a guy who can do all those types of things, obviously you can get him the ball in different situations. If you have a lot of those guys on one team then it definitely causes fits for the defense."

On whether he thought he might get drafted at No. 7 when Darrius Heyward-Bey was picked:

“Like I said, you all see the mock drafts and a lot of them had me projected there. Al Davis is a guy who makes all the decisions there [in Oakland] and everybody knows that he loves speed. Credit to [Darrius] Heyward-Bey; he ran the fastest 40 at the combine. I knew that was a possibility, so that’s why I didn’t get too worked up about it. I am where I am right now.”

On whether he was surprised about getting picked by the Eagles:

“Kind of, because I didn’t have much contact with them. That’s the only reason why. When I got the call I obviously don’t recognize area codes. It was the Eagles and I had a huge smile on my face and I talked to coach [Andy] Reid and talked to everybody else. It was great.”

On his success as a kick returner:

“I just love doing it. I think I put in the work and the film study to be successful at it and I think a lot of it goes into the schemes that we put in. I think a lot of that credit goes to our special teams coordinator as well.”

Here is more from coach Andy Reid:

On how they will try to get Maclin involved:

“We will try to get him acclimated this camp. We have our mini camp this upcoming weekend and we will bring him in here and let him get used to the offense and go from there. There are a lot of things you can do with him. I am sure you’ve seen clips of him. He ran a ton of reverses and all of the little gadget plays that go with it.”

On why the organization took a wide receiver:

“Honestly, I thought that he was the best player that was available. Again, I just completely trusted the board and that’s why I went with it.”

On the depth now at the wide receiver position:

“I’d say that we have plenty of people there. It’s just a matter of all of them being on the same page with [QB] Donovan [McNabb] and working hard. We should have some flexibility, versatility, a little speed, and guys that can catch the football, which is what I think is really the most important thing.”

On whether he has talked to Donovan yet about the pick:

“You know what, I headed right out. I texted him real quick when we were making the pick and then I snuck out of there.”

On whether there were any serious talks with any veteran WRs that were available:

“Not really, no. We looked into them. It didn’t look like it was going to work. That’s not why we took Maclin. Again, he was the best player that was on the board there.”

On when he thought Maclin was going to be a real possibility:

“I had about three or four guys right there and he was what I thought was the best of the bunch. He started sliding and there were a couple of teams that were trying to move up to get him and that’s why we snuck up there with the sixth round pick with [Browns head coach] Eric [Mangini] in Cleveland.”

On whether he was surprised that RB Knowshon Moreno was taken 12th overall:

“He’s a great kid, a solid kid and he didn’t have a lot of holes in him. I wasn’t surprised at all actually.”

On whether the team had planned to try and trade up in the first round:

“We looked at that. We looked at trading up a couple of times for certain guys, and we weighed a few options of trading back. When you pick in that area, when you start hitting that 15-and-on down you have some flexibility to do some things and try some things if needed.” 

On young wide receivers coming in and making an impact:

“I think they’re [DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin] both smart guys. They’re very competitive guys. They’ve had a lot of success at the college level. Now Jeremy has to come in and kind of go through the same things that DeSean [Jackson] did last year and earn a spot there, earn playing time.”

On whether the WR Anquan Boldin trade rumors are now dead:

“(Jokingly) Unless you want to start some, we can talk about that. Right now yes, I would probably say that.”

On whether selecting Maclin will stop the fans from saying that the team needs a wide receiver:

“It depends on how they all play. If they are scoring touchdowns and getting first downs I don’t think there will be any complaints.”

On using Maclin as a kick returner:

“We’ll look at him, see how he does. He is pretty good at that though.”

On evaluating Maclin’s game overall:

“As a receiver he was the most productive receiver in the country, all around I’m saying when you add special teams in there. You look at his hands, his ability to catch football, he didn’t drop footballs. You look at his ability getting in and out of breaks. They have a vertical game that they’ve worked on and then quick hitch routes that they do in their offense. He has the ability to stop and start which is important and the ability to get in and out of breaks, which I think is important as well. We just thought he was an all-around good player.”