Reid on Jeremy Maclin

Opening remarks:

“So with the first pick that we had here we traded with Cleveland to go up a couple spots and gave them our second sixth round pick and we took Jeremy Maclin, a wide receiver from the University of Missouri. I think he is just a heck of a football player and on top of that a quality kid. Very intelligent, very fast, great hands and has return ability.”


On what separates Maclin from other wide receivers:

“Actually we thought he was going to go quite a bit higher than what he did, so this was not who we had targeted. He just happened to be one of those guys who fell a little bit and kind of fell into our laps there so we wanted to take advantage of it. We strictly trust our evaluation of him as a football player.”


On how they will try to get Maclin involved:

“We will try to get him acclimated this camp. We have our mini camp this upcoming weekend and we will bring him in here and let him get used to the offense and go from there. There are a lot of things you can do with him. I am sure you’ve seen clips of him. He ran a ton of reverses and all of the little gadget plays that go with it.”


On why the organization took a wide receiver:

“Honestly, I thought that he was the best player that was available. Again, I just completely trusted the board and that’s why I went with it.”


On the depth now at the wide receiver position:

“I’d say that we have plenty of people there. It’s just a matter of all of them being on the same page with [QB] Donovan [McNabb] and working hard. We should have some flexibility, versatility, a little speed, and guys that can catch the football, which is what I think is really the most important thing.”


On whether he has talked to Donovan yet about the pick:

“You know what, I headed right out. I texted him real quick when we were making the pick and then I snuck out of there.”



On whether there were any serious talks with any veteran WRs that were available:

“Not really, no. We looked into them. It didn’t look like it was going to work. That’s not why we took Maclin. Again, he was the best player that was on the board there.”



On what contact he has had with Maclin:

“I talked to him down at the combine. I didn’t bring him in. Again, I thought he would be gone well before he got to us.”



On when he thought Maclin was going to be a real possibility:

“I had about three or four guys right there and he was what I thought was the best of the bunch. He started sliding and there were a couple of teams that were trying to move up to get him and that’s why we snuck up there with the sixth round pick with [Browns head coach] Eric [Mangini] in Cleveland.”



On what the options are looking like at running back moving forward:

“Well, we’ll see. We’ll see what happens here with the rest of the draft and there is a lot of time before we start playing so we could bring somebody else in.”



On whether he was surprised that RB Knowshon Moreno was taken 12th overall:

“He’s a great kid, a solid kid and he didn’t have a lot of holes in him. I wasn’t surprised at all actually.”



On whether giving up a sixth round pick is a good price to pay to move up from 21st overall to 19th overall:

“It’s really not, no. Eric [Mangini] is starting a new program there in Cleveland, so he’s trying to accumulate as many picks as he can get right now, which I think is a smart move. That’s why he wanted to do that.”



On whether the team had planned to try and trade up in the first round:

“We looked at that. We looked at trading up a couple of times for certain guys, and we weighed a few options of trading back. When you pick in that area, when you start hitting that 15-and-on down you have some flexibility to do some things and try some things if needed.”



On how high he had WR Jeremy Maclin on his draft board”

“I had him high. (Jokingly) I had him in the first round, how’s that?”



On young wide receivers coming in and making an impact:

“I think they’re [DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin] both smart guys. They’re very competitive guys. They’ve had a lot of success at the college level. Now Jeremy has to come in and kind of go through the same things that DeSean [Jackson] did last year and earn a spot there, earn playing time.”



On whether the WR Anquan Boldin trade rumors are now dead:

“(Jokingly) Unless you want to start some, we can talk about that. Right now yes, I would probably say that.”



On whether selecting Maclin will stop the fans from saying that the team needs a wide receiver:

“It depends on how they all play. If they are scoring touchdowns and getting first downs I don’t think there will be any complaints.”



On using Maclin as a kick returner:

“We’ll look at him, see how he does. He is pretty good at that though.”



On Maclin’s ablity to step in and play right away like DeSean:

“I would say he should be able to work in and get time in there. I didn’t pick him up as a returner. I picked him up as a wide receiver.”



On evaluating Maclin’s game overall:

“As a receiver he was the most productive receiver in the country, all around I’m saying when you add special teams in there. You look at his hands, his ability to catch football, he didn’t drop footballs. You look at his ability getting in and out of breaks. They have a vertical game that they’ve worked on and then quick hitch routes that they do in their offense. He has the ability to stop and start which is important and the ability to get in and out of breaks, which I think is important as well. We just thought he was an all-around good player.”



On Maclin’s success on third down in college:

“I don’t know that. I guess he did pretty well on third downs.”



On whether he has started to think of ways he can use Maclin in the offense:

“I really haven’t gotten that far. I’ll let [offensive coordinator] Marty [Mornhinweg] do that right now. I’ll work on it once this day is over.”