Desean Jackson's Future With The Eagles

During the 2011 season, I was pretty fed up with Desean Jackson and his antics.  He wouldn't go over the middle, he was somewhat of a problem in the locker room, and overall I wanted the Eagles to cut ties with Desean as soon as the off season hit.

But last week the Eagles applied the franchise tag to Jackson, and this season he will make somewhere around 9 million dollars.  The applying of the tag assures that Jackson will be an Eagle for at least another year and it has caused me to reconsider my opinion of Jackson's future with this team.

Before Desean was franchised, a lot of fans including myself were fine with letting him walk and bringing in a free agent wide receiver.  After all there will be a ton of big names on the market this year and replacing Desean would be pretty easy.

The only problem with bringing in a free agent like Vincent Jackson or Plaxico Burress is that they are completely different receivers than Desean.  Desean uses his speed to stretch defenses which open things up for receivers under neath and also the running game.  Jackson's deep threat causes opposing defenses to bring a safety out of the box and send him 20-30 yards back to prevent a big touchdown.  Simply put, bringing in another receiver would completely change the dynamic of this offense.

At this point, I think 2012 is going to be a make or break year for Jackson.  By franchising him, the Eagles are basically saying, "Here is one year, show us what you can do."  But it really won't be about stats and receiving yards that in the end determine Jackson's future with the Birds.  I think a big long term contract hinges on how well the Eagles offense does as a result of Jackson's very presence on the field.

In the end I hope that the Eagles sign Jackson to a long term deal.  He definitely is not a guy who is going to go over the middle or lay out his body to make a big catch.  He's not that type of receiver and Eagles fans need to realize that.  But he is a deep threat with a lot of speed and who at the end of the day is the very cornerstone of  this offense.