Thoughts on Desean Jackson’s Release by the Eagles

The Eagles released WR Desean Jackson a few days ago and much of the media discussion has centered around an NJ.com article that rather loosely connects Jackson to gang members with criminal records. Other media members have pointed to his 2013 stat line and asked “How can you get rid of a guy with those stats?” Or they have pointed to the oft repeated line “he takes the top off the defense” and in doing so have contended (overtly or otherwise) that the reason Riley Cooper and other players had good years was a direct result of defenses paying so much attention to Desean Jackson. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the move…

As I watched the Eagles last season I had a reoccurring thought during virtually every game: “As dynamic as Desean Jackson is, he really limits a lot of the things Chip Kelly wants to do in terms of stretching the field horizontally with the WR screens and bubble screens.” See, I think Desean Jackson should be a very dangerous weapon catching those types of passes, but he isn’t. He’s actually pretty terrible at it.  It drove me mad last season watching him catch WR screens and just hop out of bounds for little or no gain rather than giving effort and at least gaining a few yards, and maybe, with his speed, once in a while, breaking one for a big game. It really became pointless to run those plays because typically wouldn’t give any effort to make yardage after catching the ball at the line of scrimmage.

You also can run the screens to Jackson’s side of the field. His size makes him a major liability when it comes to blocking and those screens owe much of their success to blocking.

Every game I would think… “They’d be better off if Jackson had torn his ACL rather than Maclin,” or if they could trade Jackson for a comparable WR that may not have his speed, but has the size (and willingness) to run those screens and block the defenders on the edge.

So, I really don’t see Jackson as nearly the loss the most of the media believes it will be. Quite the opposite. I think this will really help them move the ball consistently, sustain drives, and end of game situation where they have to protect a big lead with the ball. Instead of running McCoy constantly, they mix in some conservative WR screens. This of course, if all contingent on them drafting some quality WRs in the 2014 draft. And, according to what I’ve read, this should be a banner crop of WRs coming out in this year’s draft. I’m willing to bet any WR’s they draft are bigger with a willingness to block.

So, I wasn’t surprised that the Eagles parted ways with Jackson, but I was surprise they couldn’t work a trde even with Jackson’s $10.5 million contract.

I guess now we’ll see during the 2014 season.