The Eagles neglected to bring in former Missouri WR Jeremy Maclin for a pre-draft visit. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

When the Eagles neglected to bring in Missouri WR Jeremy Maclin for a pre-draft visit, it wasn’t necessarily a strategic decision. Coach Andy Reid admitted to the team’s official Web site that the Eagles didn’t expect the speedy wideout to be there when they selected at No. 21, let alone No. 19, where they moved up to take Maclin through a trade with the Browns:

“Actually, we thought he was going to go a little bit higher than what he did,” Reid said. “This is not who we had targeted. He just happened to be one of those guys that fell a little bit, kind of fell in our lap there, so we wanted to take advantage of it. (We) strictly trusted our evaluation of him as a football player.”

“I got to talk to him down at the Combine. I didn’t bring him in. Again, I thought he would be gone long before it got to us.”

Maclin was pleased that everything worked out the way it did:

“I think it worked out for the best,” Maclin said during a conference call on Saturday. “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.”

Posted in: Around The Web, Draft  |