Nick Piccone
After Jeremy Maclin signed with the Chiefs, multiple reports cited a “miscommunication” between Maclin and the Eagles as the reasoning behind the failure of Chip Kelly to re-sign his best wide receiver. Some reports that were floating around at the time that Maclin was pondering a huge offer from a mystery team. Once he signed with Kansas City, Chip Kelly said himself during a press conference that the Eagles couldn’t offer as much money as the Chiefs were offering Maclin.
It appears that might not be the whole truth. According to this story on Maclin from the Kansas City Star, a good percentage of the reason Maclin decided to leave Philly and rejoin Andy Reid with the Chiefs was because he felt like the Chiefs wanted him more.
Just the same, leaving Philadelphia was painful for Maclin and, Parres believes, part of another entire tier of his maturation.
“It was tough, man; I had established a lot of relationships there and had become very comfortable up there,” Maclin said. “I kind of wanted to be remembered as being the greatest receiver ever to play there.”
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That broader perspective, ironically, might have been a factor in Maclin leaving the Eagles.
“The bottom line is I think they tried to take advantage of his good nature,” Parres said. “They knew he wanted to stay and there was really no reason they didn’t want him to stay, and they tried to take advantage of him.”
So when free-agency Saturday arrived in March, Maclin was intrigued by the prospect of an offer from the Chiefs and Reid but was inclined to stay with the Eagles as he went on a golf trip with Parres and family in Palm Springs.
Even when the Chiefs came at Maclin with a five-year offer worth an average of $11 million a year, Parres said, Maclin primarily wanted to know what the Eagles were thinking.
As Reid, quarterbacks Alex Smith and Chase Daniel and receivers coach David Culley were calling Maclin that day, “making him feel like he’s the greatest thing on Earth,” Parres said, Maclin could “barely get (Eagles coach and de facto general manager) Chip Kelly to answer the phone.”
“He called Chip Kelly five times Saturday: ‘Chip, can you just show me anything?’ ” Parres recalled.
(At a news conference after Maclin left, Kelly said he had had a number of discussions with Maclin and said that “we couldn’t go as high as Kansas City.”).
That Sunday, while Maclin was on the golf course, the Eagles called and countered by shifting money from year three of their offer to year two — which contrary to Kelly and published reports made it close enough to the same deal Maclin was offered with the Chiefs that Maclin was ready to stay.
As they stood on the 16th tee, Maclin’s initial thought was just that.
Then Reid called again.
And 10 minutes later Maclin was Kansas City-bound.
“It wasn’t the money; it was that 10 minutes,” Parres said. “Jeremy said, ‘(The Chiefs) just wanted me more, and I think that’s where I should be.’ ”
A lot more to read here.
Of course, Chip is a busy man, but that shouldn’t be an excuse when it comes to keeping your best receiver on the team. Due to that miscommunication, the Eagles were forced to draft Nelson Agholor with their first pick. Ten minutes was the difference in Maclin leaving for Kansas City. If the Eagles’ receivers run into problems this season, you know talk will surface about the importance of keeping Maclin. I like Maclin and all, but I really hope the receivers with the Eagles now make us forget about him.
Signing Maclin for 11 mil may been financially irresponsible! Just because he was “your best receiver on the team”, doesn’t mean you can sign him for whatever. Paying wide receivers large amounts of money has not been a very good formula for success in this salary cap world of NFL. Same with the Cowboys and DeMarco Murray, they were financially responsible by not signing him to a big number, eventhough they would have loved to keep him. Like Maclin, DeMarco felt unwanted and left.