Jackson’s Injury Could Spell Trouble for Eagles
When DeSean Jackson left practice on Saturday morning with a lower back injury, my biggest fear had now become reality. This fear has nothing really to do with Jackson’s health, but instead it deals with his absence on the field during training camp. Jackson is coming off his third, and most productive, season in which he was the first player in NFL history to be selected for the Pro Bowl at 2 positions. With Jackson out, new quarterback Kevin Kolb will now have to continue camp without his best receiver. Most of you will argue that this is not that big of a deal because it is so early in the season, and that Jackson has a long time to fully recover, but you must not forget that Kolb is not Donovan McNabb. McNabb could easily make the throws that are necessary to keep Jackson productive; Kolb just doesn’t have that deep ball ability. This camp is Kolb’s first chance to create a serious connection with Jackson as the leader of this offense. Without Jackson there, Kolb will make these connections with the other receivers on the team. You could spin this to not be bad thing, but it is. When an offense is undergoing a change, a team needs their main playmakers to be there. This new offense system that the Eagles will use relies heavily on timing. I know Jackson has not been out long, but if he does miss a lot of camp, the time he misses will be time the Eagles as team cannot get back. Let’s be honest the Eagles have a ton of offensive weapons, but without Jackson there is no deep threat. This Eagles team without a deep threat will not be able to accomplish much because opposing defenses will just pack the line with defenders. If teams are able to do that, this Eagles team will not be good. This is a team that is going to rely on its’ offense to create points, and drain the clock down in order to win, so if this offense is without its’ most explosive player, it is going to have a very tough time to create anything.
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Another thing Jackson is missing out on is his leadership role in the offense. Although Jackson is only going into his third season in the NFL, he is the unquestioned leader of the Eagles wide receivers. Without Jackson in camp, rookies will have to look elsewhere for help, and there aren’t that many places to look. Besides Jason Avant, there are not many true veteran wide receivers on this team. Jeremy Maclin is going into his second year, and is still going through the latter stages of the college-to-NFL transition that all players go through. The last thing that scares me about this injury is the chance that it might reoccur during the season. I know this is only a back strain, but if he is rushed back, Jackson could get hurt during the whole year which would truly hurt this Eagles team’s chances of making some real noise during the season.
Truthfully, I know that Jackson will find his niche in the offense because he is such a big weapon in this offense. If starts to miss more time that’s when I will truly start to worry. The thing I’m worried most about is the chance this injury could flare up during the season. If that happens, this Eagle team is in serious trouble, and could face their second losing season in the last decade.
By: Louis Greco
Pro Football Fans Philadelphia Eagles Correspondent