Can Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson deal with change?

THIS WAS GOING to be a column about DeSean Jackson learning a new offense under coach Chip Kelly and maybe, just maybe, finding a way to unlock what can be a devastating skill set with a little more regularity. It still is going to be about that, too - after a short detour.

Because here is the thing: I could not care less about the identity of Jackson's agent. When word broke the other day that he was firing Drew Rosenhaus and maybe signing on with Jay-Z, my only reaction was to click on the next story as soon as humanly possible.

Now, though, we have more news. Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Rosenhaus has filed a grievance with the NFL Players Association, claiming that Jackson owes him $400,000. Seeing as how he signed a deal last year that could end up paying him about $50 million, this would not seem to be an insurmountable issue.

But it is a public issue now, another ripple on the pond. It is all part of the DeSean Jackson Experience, as everyone knows.

"Right now I'm just focusing on football, honestly," Jackson said yesterday afternoon, before the Yahoo! Sports report broke. "I haven't made a decision on where I'm going or what I'm going to do yet. That's not really important to myself right now. The most important thing is this season, my teammates and this team. Winning games and putting in the work to do the things we need to do to go into the season and have a head start on everybody else."

With that, end of detour.

Jackson used the phrase "putting in the work." He also admitted that when Andy Reid was the Eagles' coach, "For myself, I never really made it throughout the whole offseason workouts." He didn't want to do them, it seems, and besides, there wasn't a whole lot of learning necessary after his first season. The offense was the same, the coach was the same, the day-to-day schedule was the same.

Jackson usually thrived within that static structure. He put up some numbers, and he eventually got paid. And if he was invisible in the red zone, and occasionally self-absorbed beyond the understanding of most, he remained a player who always needed to be accounted for by opposing defenses.

For years, that was enough - but now it isn't enough anymore. It is the lesson of Chip Kelly, who is called (in alternating sets of clichés) either the new sheriff in town, the new broom who will sweep clean, or the new set of eyes.

Whatever - he has Jackson's attention.

"This year, having Chip come here, I've been here throughout the majority of the workouts and have been putting in the work with my teammates and things like that," he said. "So it's a good thing right now."

Jackson was easy and accommodating after yesterday's minicamp practice at the NovaCare Complex. He did the NFL Network first, and then a bunch of writers and cameras, and then another bunch of writers and cameras. All is good so far.

But, this being DeSean, there are those ripples on the pond. After finding himself occasionally playing next to second- and third-teamers at practice, Jackson told phillymag.com that he marched himself into Kelly's office and sought an explanation.

It apparently went like this: that Jackson needed to learn what all of the receivers do on a given play, not just his own routes - because versatility is the golden grail of this offense. Besides, if Jackson would have opened his eyes or read a news report in the last few weeks, he would have seen that virtually every Eagles player has taken snaps on the second and third teams in practice, and that Kelly says it is all meaningless.

Anyway, speaking about it all after practice, Jackson said everything was fine between him and the coach.

"There was never really a misunderstanding," Jackson said. "It was more of me just wanting to see what he expected out of myself and what he expected out of the rest of the teammates and things like that. I had a talk with him and me and him are on the same page . . . Any time you have a new head coach come in, you just want to get on the same page . . .

"From reports that people were saying, I wasn't buying into the system, whatever the case may be. I never really believed in that and I never thought that was true. Like I said, I have a great relationship with my team and Chip and things like that.

"It's an ongoing process of building a relationship, building trust and things like that. Right now, things are at a good place."

Much more interesting is wondering how Kelly might employ Jackson and his unique talents. It seems pretty obvious that the coach wants to move him all over the formation, including into the backfield, in an attempt to create mismatches with Jackson. Reid and Marty Mornhinweg tried the same thing, with varying success. We can only wonder if the addition of the lightning tempo will create more of those mismatches.

"I never really had to learn every route or every play that every person on the offense has to do," Jackson said. " . . . Now I'm learning slot receiver, running back positions, X and the Z [the two traditional wide receivers]. So it's a good thing for me."

Jackson admitted that the learning has been hard. He said, "It's almost like taking steps, one step at a time," and after 2 months, he feels pretty good about it.

But for how long?

With DeSean Jackson, the answer is rarely simple.

On Twitter: @theidlerich

Blog: ph.ly/DNL