Eagles coach Chip Kelly is preparing to face DeSean Jackson for the first time since cutting him in the offseason, and Kelly claims that the only reason he cut Jackson is that Jackson didn’t fit the profile of his offense.
Asked how much concern Kelly had about Jackson off the field, Kelly answered, “Zero.”
So why was Jackson cut?
“Yeah, just trying to build the overall team in terms of what we’re looking for offensively and how we wanted to get bigger at the wideout spot and that’s what we did,” Kelly said.
That answer is hard to buy. Kelly may prefer bigger wide receivers, but he was able to make things work with a small receiver last year, when Jackson was by far the team’s leading receiver, with 82 catches for 1,332 yards and nine touchdowns. Jackson was targeted on a whopping 126 passes last season, 42 more than any other Eagle. If Kelly had a problem with Jackson’s size, it sure wasn’t reflected in Kelly’s game planning or play calling. It’s also worth noting that one of the ways the Eagles replaced Jackson’s playmaking ability in the passing game this offseason was to trade for Darren Sproles, who is leading the Eagles in both catches and receiving yards this season and is even smaller than Jackson. Kelly even said after Sproles’s big game on Monday night against the Colts that Sproles’s size can be an advantage because it’s hard for opposing defenses to spot him in traffic.
On Sundays, Jackson looked like a great fit in Kelly’s offense. The real problems appeared to be that Jackson and Kelly were reportedly not seeing eye to eye outside game day, and that the Eagles had some concerns about Jackson away from the game. There had been talk out of Philadelphia for weeks prior to his release that Jackson could be on the way out, but the Eagles didn’t actually release him until about an hour after a story alleging that Jackson had gang ties was published.
Whatever the real reasons, Kelly seems comfortable with his decision to cut Jackson. We’ll see on Sunday whether Jackson can make him regret it.