Rich Hofmann: Eagles' Maclin goes from holdout to breakout

JEREMY MACLIN'S job is to make liars out of people. It is a task he approaches with seriousness and with sincerity.

When he held out this summer in a rookie contract dispute, there was much tut-tutting in the land. (Truth in advertising: I tutted but didn't tut-tut.) As the missed practices began to mount, from one to five to 10 to 15, the concerns were obvious enough, that he was only a kid, and the transition from a spread offense at Missouri to a West Coast offense in Philadelphia was going to be hard enough already, and et cetera.

Well, what do you think now? Maclin was here for the exhibition games, for the runs of August, and that was plenty. Obviously.

When they drafted Maclin in the first place, there was what had to be described as cautious applause - more than one hand clapping but less than full

municipal thunder. The reason was because so many other young receivers had labored in this offense under coach Andy Reid. DeSean Jackson had broken through in 2008 as a rookie, but he still had to be considered the exception until proven otherwise.

Well, now what? Because

Maclin arrived yesterday against the godawful Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"I think I'm a very intelligent guy," Maclin said.

(Humble, too.)

"I can pick up on things fairly easily," he said. "I know a few different positions. That's what they asked me to do so that's what I've got to do. It's not about trying to prove [things] to everybody. It's just doing what you're capable of doing and letting everything else take care of itself."

Starting in place of the injured Kevin Curtis, Maclin took the job and made it his own. He caught six passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns, a 51-yarder and a 40-yarder from quarterback Donovan McNabb. He is the first rookie in the history of the franchise to have two 40-yard touchdown receptions in a game.

With Curtis' knee iffy now for weeks and the whole thing kind of nebulous, Maclin has done things as a rookie that plenty of other receivers in this offense have not approached. Reid will never say it this soon - he wouldn't say it yesterday - but the job has to be Maclin's. It would be crazy to limit this kid's snaps in any significant way. They can call him the starter or they can call him whatever they want, but Maclin and Jackson are the future of this offense.