Now, nobody is replacing Maclin in this offense. There’s a reason John Dorsey gave him a five-year, $55 million contract this past offseason. Maclin has been a better fit for Alex Smith and Andy Reid’s offense than Dwayne Bowe ever was.
His route-running is some of the best in the NFL, he has the ability to play all over the field and cause matchup problems for opposing defenses and also has excellent hands, having only one drop on 120 targets. His 87 catches is a Chiefs receiver record, not to mention he also finished with just under 1100 yards and eight touchdowns to boot. It’s an incredibly hard loss to incur, especially heading into a divisional round game against the defending Super Bowl champions.
All hope is not lost though! When Maclin went down against the Texans I had flashbacks to how the offense played when Jamaal Charles tore his ACL against the Bears: ultra conservative, playing not to lose and not trying to push the ball up the field. Much like how this team has played since starting 1-5, they did anything but. Alex Smith kept the ball moving down the field and threw an absolute strike to Chris Conley in the back of the end zone to go up 20-0.
The next drive Smith found Kelce in the middle of the field which turned into a 48-yard gain when Kelce was able to split his defenders and run down the sideline to get inside the Texans’ 15-yard line. Spencer Ware continued to pound the ball with his attacking style of play, adding in a 5-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. After watching the Chiefs struggle to score the last few games in the second half this was a much welcomed turn of events, one that I don’t think many of us saw coming after Maclin was hurt.
Next: Who becomes the hero?