Image courtesy of philly.com
HOLY Hell!
Eagle fans expect a LOT from Jeremy Maclin this year. Specifically, fans expect him to grab 1,000 or more receiving yards in 2014. Damn coming back from a destroyed knee. Damn the fact that in 2010 even with a guy to draw coverage from him, in 16 games Maclin fell 36 yards short of 1,000.
I put up a poll yesterday asking fans how many yards they thought Maclin would get in 2014, and 58% said 1,000 or better.
It’s going to be tougher for him now both from the inside and the outside, yet fans are expecting more than he’s ever been able to deliver. Yikes.
Look…Let me step in on Maclin’s behalf for a second.
It would be nice if Jeremy went over a grand, but instead of expecting so much from him so soon, let’s be prepared to cut our guy a little slack.
He’s already going to be pushing. Partly out of pride trying to show he can be the #1; partly out of being on a 1-year deal and wanting a heavier wallet; partly out of just wanting to show he can be healthy again.
His own moments of doubt will be battle enough, he doesn’t need us rattling his cage even harder. After all we are his fans, right? Our job is to support him. To let him know we have his back. Not to make him think he has to run himself into the ground.
So while 1,000 would be nice, if it becomes clear that he can’t or he won’t; or if it turns out that he needs a week here or there, let’s remember who we are, and what we come to do. Instead of deriding him, let’s show our recovering Bird some love.
We’ll overwork him next year. 🙂
I feel that Maclin places the Eagles in a tough spot. When he signed the one year deal it places them in a position where if he does perform well then he’s going to want big money. If he doesn’t then the Eagles made a huge mistake letting Jackson walk for nothing. If he gets hurt we have a whole lot of nothing behind him. Some fans just assume Chip’s offense makes players better. Simply not true. There were a bunch of guys who looked awful last year. Avant had the worst season of his career in the offense. None of the receivers after Avant did much of anything. If anyone thinks Jeff Maehl walks into this lineup and catches 80 ball, cause of Chip they’re on drugs.
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Can’t have said it any better myself.
Unless things work out perfectly, or we pick up a rookie tomorrow who matures quickly, we’ve essentially done what the Cowboys did and turned a strength into a weakness for no good reason.
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