In a shortened offseason that featured many star-studded moves in which the Philadelphia Eagles used their spending money wisely to acquire the likes of Nnamdi Asomugha, Vince Young, Jason Babin, Cullen Jenkins, Ryan Harris, Ronnie Brown and Donald Lee, there was an unhappy player that just wanted to be paid like the rest of these free agents.
DeSean Jackson, who is entering his final year of his rookie contract, missed a week of training camp practices before finally showing up on Monday. After passing his physical, he was allowed to take part in the afternoon session — his first time back on the football field this season.
“Honestly man, it feels good to be back. I’ve been sitting around kind of itching, waiting just to get back out here with my teammates. The atmosphere, everything feels good,” said Jackson. “With the lockout being so long, and then with the lockout ending I’ve just been kind of sitting around waiting. I feel good to be back and I’m happy to be back out here with my teammates and everything like that.”
The Eagles have been without Jackson and Jeremy Maclin, their two starting receivers, since training camp first opened up. Maclin’s timetable for a return is still a mystery, so the return of Jackson to this offense is even more important. Prior to yesterday, Michael Vick had been working with Riley Cooper and Jason Avant as the primary receivers; both Cooper and Avant are talented players who should prove to be reliable this season, but none are near the talent level of Jackson.
Now whether or not Jackson is in football shape is to be seen, but according to his self-prognosis, he is in “great shape”.
“I’ve been back home just working out every day, haven’t missed a day of working out,” said Jackson.
Returning to practice in front of the Philadelphia fans is very exciting for Jackson, who appreciates all the support he receives from the loyal fan base.
“I love Philadelphia, I love the fans here; and just coming back out here on the field, you know the fans just showing me a lot of love and things like that. I just want to keep that positive theme going,” said Jackson.
Even though Jackson is back in action, their is still the question of whether or not the Eagles will offer him a new contract.
“I’m here to play football. I want to win games, man. I think so far, free-agency, and the new additions added to the new people on the team, I just feel very happy about our chances this year,” said Jackson. “As far as negotiations and all that other stuff, I really can’t answer too many questions because really there’s not been too much going on. We’re just ready to come back and play football, man.”
“I know where my destination is, and my destiny is to be here and to be an Eagle. So I just want to, like I said, just keep doing the right things and working hard and hopefully everything pans out,” said Jackson.
Jackson has been saying the right things and appears to have all his focus on the upcoming season. Let’s just hope he can keep all his attention on building up his chemistry with Vick and the other receivers, instead of dreaming about his first lucrative NFL contract.
I was concerned with what DeSean was going to say in his first press confernece. No worries now, he said all the right things – and with conviction. With Rosenhaus as an agent, you never know what the athlete will say or do. So far, so good. Ball is in the Birds court now….
And Rosenhaus wasn’t even allowed on the field, Howie Roseman made him stand on out the outside. That’s always a good thing, you want the least influence from Rosenhaus to Jackson as possible.
From that pic alone i can tell hes put on some jack. Good idea.
Get him a deal and be done with it. Im thinking he gets one before the weekend.
The punt return agaisnt the Gmen last year is worth 10 mill gaurenteed alone.Disagree and look at that pic above…go back and look at the Giants fans faces.Love it everytime i see it.
Kind of funny to me that people will write ‘pay the man, he’s worth X mil for sure’ and (prior to this offseason) the Eagles are cheap – yet everyone hates Rosenhaus – who has the sole purpose in life of getting this player or that player, the best deal possible……………. and let’s not blame Rosehaus 100% for T Owens, Owens was a problem in ‘Frisco before he got here, and had a different agent (I think he switched after the SB) when he arived here. Owens was/is his own worst enemy.
So how is that for a change in topic –
“I’ve been sitting around kind of itching, waiting just to get back out here with my teammates”
Who’s fault is that?
It will take a while before he gets a new Deal..
The the Eagles take care of VIck first,which would free up a few million from his “Franchise” amount, and then need to firm up the remainder of Roster Question marks (Maybe a LB added, maybe a WR depending on Maclin’s Status) then once this is done, they will know how much $$$ under the CAp they have left to make a deal with D-Jax..
I say 2-3 weeks from now after a couple of pre-season games and there will be 3-4 veteran players looked at hard to see if they will remain Eagles such as Marlin Jackson, J Hanson, J Jackson and J PArker and then the injury situation should clear up more about W Justice, illness with Maclin, etc,etc ..
There is no reason for the Eagles to rush into anything until they are comfortable with their Roster which is still being fine-tuned and tweaked..