Coming into a contract year, many were expecting Philadelphia Eagles' wide receiver Jeremy Maclin to have a huge campaign. It's not going to happen now, after reports from around the league indicated on Saturday that the former first-round pick tore his ACL in practice.
Maclin has been a huge part of Philadelphia's offense since being selected out of Missouri in 2009. He averaged 65 receptions for 863 yards and over six touchdowns per season during that span.
With Maclin out of the fold for 2013 and possible beyond, all eyes turn to the high-paid DeSean Jackson to pick his game up from what was a pedestrian 2012 campaign. His 700-yard performance from a season ago was his lowest output in what has been an up-and-down five-year NFL career.
After putting up consecutive 1000-yard seasons in 2009 and 2010, Jackson is averaging just 830 yards per season since. His 75 targets in 2012 also represented a career low.
All of Jackson's numbers, across the board, need to go up if Philadelphia is going to have success throwing the ball to the outside in Chip Kelly's new fast-paced offense.
The larger question here is who will step up after Jackson on the Eagles' depth chart?
Jason Avant has been a consistently good No.3-type receiver during his career in Philadelphia. He has put up a minimum of 573 yards in each of the last four seasons, but has only two touchdowns over the past three years. He's not a No. 2 wide receiver in a good passing offense.
Philadelphia did add Arrelious Benn from Tampa Bay in a trade prior to the draft, but the former second-round pick put up just four receptions in eight games last season. That lackluster performance came on the heels of him combining for 830-plus yards and five scores in his first two NFL seasons.
Riley Cooper has seen his production increase in each of his first three seasons, but topped out at only 23 receptions and three scores last year. Philadelphia simply cannot rely on him to make much of an impact, even with an increased role.
The additions of James Casey and Zach Ertz should help lower the blow of losing Maclin for the season. Casey, a free-agent acquisition from Houston, recorded 34 receptions in a backup tight end, h-back role last season. Ertz, a second-round pick from Stanford, should provide a challenge for current starting tight end Brent Celek. Ertz brought in 69 receptions for six scores last season.
Still, the loss of Maclin hurts on the outside. Sure, LeSean McCoy will catch a lot of passes out of the backfield; but that's not going to help spread the field. Philadelphia's tight end group is rather solid, but again that's going to be on intermediate routes between the hashes.
Whoever is under center will need one of Philadelphia's uknown commodities at wide receiver to step up if he is going to succeed this season. Either that, or Philadelphia targets a wide receiver on the trade market.
That also got a bit cloudy after Percy Harvin went down with an apparently serious hip injury last week. The Seattle Seahawks were said to be shopping either Sidney Rice or Golden Tate after the acquired Harvin from Minnesota. That's just not in the cards right now.
Robert Meachem and Malcom Floyd may be on the market from San Diego, but that also gets a bit fishy. Floyd would require a nice return because of his production over the past few seasons and his rather cap-friendly contract in 2013 and 2014. Meanwhile, Meachem is owed more than $20 million over the next three years.
Either way, we are going to learn a lot about Philadelphia's plans in the coming weeks. We are also going to learn a lot about who we should target later in fantasy drafts, as some under-the-radar players will have to fill the void of Maclin's loss.
Stay tuned to eDraft with more information on all the injuries taking place around the football world about a week prior to the first preseason game.