Eagles coach Andy Reid was just as taken with the fact that Maclin escorted teammates into the end zone on long runs in each of the last two games, throwing the final block in both cases - DeSean Jackson's 67-yard end-around against the Redskins, and Leonard Weaver's 41-yard TD run against the Giants.
"Normally, he was the one with the ball in college, as opposed to having to block,'' Reid said, when asked if this part of Maclin's game stood out to the Birds when they were preparing for the draft.
Reid noted that Jackson also is a willing blocker, despite his slight frame.
It really is amazing, when you think back a few years, to the kinds of receivers Reid seemed to gravitate toward; no one would have pictured the Birds drafting and starting Jackson and Maclin. Somewhere along the way, Big Red seems to have decided that star-level talent and hard-nosed, team-first play are not mutually exclusive at the wide receiver position, after all.
Maybe there's still hope for the notion that offensive balance is good, more than once in a while.
Developing storylines
-- Maybe we've been looking at the Michael Vick thing all wrong. He got just one snap before kneel-down time Sunday, but it was a 4-yard run for a first down on third-and-1 from the Giants' 15 near the end of the first quarter. Regarding the continuing question, "Why have him around?'' Well, you need three quarterbacks. Vick essentially is A.J. Feeley. If the Birds still had Feeley, would he have converted any third downs Sunday? No, he would have worn a baseball cap and congratulated guys as they jogged off the field. And now the Eagles have Jeremiah Trotter to do that, anyway. (We kid, Trot, we kid.)
