Maclin signing a plus for Chiefs
Dalton Vitt
You, I and every Chiefs fan in the world caught just as many touchdowns last season as Kansas City wide receivers. Ah, feels good.
Well, slow your roll, future Randy Moss. It’s not much of a compliment, as K.C. wideouts put up a fat, disheartening goose egg in that category in 2014. Analysts and fans alike can sling as much blame as they want at quarterback Alex Smith — and he deserves some — but when your No. 2 receiver is Junior Hemingway, you aren’t exactly going to light the field on fire.
When the opening bell rang Tuesday afternoon to signal the official start of NFL free agency, the Chiefs inked former Missouri Tigers star Jeremy Maclin to a five-year, $55 million deal. Through five professional seasons, Maclin has caught 343 passes for 4,771 yards and 36 touchdowns.
The last time a Kansas City franchise signed a player for five years and $55 million, things didn’t work out so well. (Does the name Gil Meche mean anything to you?) But Maclin’s speed and downfield ability is a nice complement to the brute strength and physicality of tight end Travis Kelce, who broke out in his second pro season as a weapon in the middle of the field.
Smith, on short and intermediate throws, was more than competent a season ago under center. The problems he and the offense had stemmed from an inability to stretch defenses vertically, which Maclin does exceptionally well.
Coming out of Mizzou, Maclin was a screen-catching monster who showed off uncanny speed and quickness to burn smaller, slower cornerbacks in the Big XII. In the NFL, defensive backs are bigger and not as easy to outwit on bubble screens, but Maclin’s innate skill to beat players off the line has given him a step or two on defenders throughout his career.
The Kansas City offense will still have to find a way to integrate him into a scheme that will always rely heavily on drag routes and quicker patterns. But with Maclin coercing safeties into flying 30 yards downfield with him, running backs Jamaal Charles and De’Anthony Thomas, along with Kelce, should have more real estate to work with in the underneath coverage.
Smith, a savvy slinger in his own way, will have to make adjustments, as well. He can no longer afford to blissfully ignore fly patterns in favor of limiting turnovers. An AFC-low seven interceptions among qualified quarterbacks in 2013 looked great on paper, but his paranoid tendency to avoid the deep ball cost his big-play potential last year.
Money-wise, an $11 million average annual value (although the actual year-to-year amounts are funky) is quite a bit for a team that had to rework its deal with waning star linebacker Tamba Hali and slap an unwanted franchise tag on sack-machine Justin Houston. Losing up-and-coming center Rodney Hudson was almost directly due to the signing of Maclin, but those are the tradeoffs NFL clubs have to make under strict salary cap rules.
As well as Hudson has developed as a former second-round selection from Florida State, swapping a lineman for a Pro Bowl-caliber skill player pays off nearly every time — sorry, Uglies.
Kansas City opted to cut Dwayne Bowe, its longest tenured receiver, Thursday, leaving a void opposite Maclin. It remains to be seen whether the Chiefs will fill that hole through another acquisition or in the NFL Draft, but viewing Maclin as a direct upgrade to Bowe is an absolute positive.
With Maclin dislodging creeping safeties from the box and complementing his comrades underneath, you can go ahead and erase “Caught as many TDs as Chiefs wide receivers” from your oh-so-padded résumé. I know, it’s a sad moment for all of us.
