DeSean isn’t the key you think he is for the Eagles

Whenever I've suggested that DeSean Jackson's production doesn't warrant a contract that would put him among the league's highest-paid wide receivers, I get a ton of emails from people who insist that Jackson's value goes well beyond the number of passes he's caught (58) or the number of touchdowns he's scored (four).

They insist that his mere presence on the field affects everything opposing defenses do against the Eagles. They insist his blazing speed forces safeties to play a mile off the line of scrimmage and makes it possible for supposed slowpokes like Jeremy Maclin and Jason Avant and Brent Celek to get open, and for LeSean McCoy to never see eight men in the box.

While I agree that Jackson's speed gives opposing defensive coordinators some pregame dyspepsia, I don't agree that the Eagles' offense will go straight to hell next season if they don't re-sign the guy.

Up in New England, the Patriots managed to win 13 games and finish second in total offense and third in scoring this season despite the absence of a Jackson-like vertical threat.

Tom Brady threw 39 touchdown passes, 24 of which were caught by tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, and another nine that were caught by Wes Welker, who only runs 4.4 40s in his dreams.

Eagles owner Jeff Lurie said the other day that he would welcome Jackson back next season "if the right terms develop." But I don't see that happening, and I also don't see the Eagles franchising Jackson because if they did that and couldn't trade him, they would have to pay him about $9.5 million next season, which is a lot of money to give a guy who had four touchdown catches and two red-zone receptions.

While there no doubt will be a lot of teeth-gnashing among the pay-DeSean-whatever-he-wants crowd if the two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver walks, I think the Eagles offense will be just fine without him.

LeSean McCoy, who was just named to the first team All-Pro by the Associated Press with Jason Peters, while teammate Jason Babin was named to the second team) established himself as one of the league's top running backs this season, rushing for 1,309 yards and a league-best 17 touchdowns. The Eagles' athletic line is an ideal match for his running style.

He had a league-best 102 first downs and 48 runs of 10 yards or more and converted 29 of 36 short-yardage situations (2 yards or less) into first downs or touchdowns in the last 10 games.

While Andy Reid believes you win in the NFL by throwing the football, he also understands what he has in McCoy. His touches increased from 285 last year to 321 this year. Expect another jump next year.

The Eagles had a lot of success this season running and throwing out of two-tight end sets with Brent Celek and Clay Harbor. That figures to increase next year as well.

For McCoy, 654 of his 1,309 rushing yards and 13 of his 17 rushing TDs came out of two tight-end sets.

The Eagles completed 53 of 87 passes out of two-tight end sets, averaging 11.3 yards per attempt. Nineteen of the Eagles' 44 pass plays of 20-plus yards in their last 11 games came out of two-tight end sets.

Despite playing with a sports hernia and a torn labrum in his hip, Celek caught 62 passes, including 53 in the last 11 games. He averaged 13.1 yards per catch. Just two of the 10 tight ends who caught more passes than him - Gronkowski and Saints Pro Bowler Jimmy Graham - had a higher yards-per-catch average than Celek.

Harbor had just 13 catches this season, but with 4.5 speed and excellent hands, his role in the passing game likely will expand next season.

"New England really opened up the eyes of a lot of teams," Celek said, referring to their use of Gronkowski and Hernandez in the passing game. "With two tight ends, you can do a lot of damage. Those guys have reinvented the game a little bit. They've done a great job.

"Clay's a great tight end. I think we both can do a lot of damage together. I think the team knows that. That's why we did a lot of two-tight end stuff this year."

Said Harbor: "New England always feels they have a mismatch, no matter who's guarding the tight ends. We feel the same way. Everybody's seen how strong Brent came on at the end of the season. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to plan an even bigger role next season, too."

Whether Jackson goes or stays, Avant feels the Eagles need to focus more on the intermediate passing game next season, and not just because it would mean more passes in his direction.

"I think as you grow as an offense, you have to learn how to play football," Avant said. "By that I mean, there are times in games where a defense is going to say, we're not going to let you get behind us.

"We need to be able to hurt people with our intermediate game first; start inside out. That's what makes big plays happen. Sometimes, I think [when] you have explosive guys, you can lose sight of how the game is supposed to be played. We have the talent to go down the field as often as we want to. But it's got to start by going over the middle first.

"Good offenses learn how to sustain drives, because you can't live and die on big plays. Because some days you get them and some days you don't."

FIGURING THE EAGLES

* Of the Eagles' 1,036 offensive plays this season, 450 of them, or 43.4 percent, were run plays. That's their highest run percentage since 2003 (44.2) and their fourth highest under Andy Reid.

* Further proof that it's not the number of yards an offense gains, but what it does with those yards: In their first 12 games, the Eagles averaged 412.6 yards per game, but averaged just 5.47 points per 100 yards. They lost eight of those 12 games. In their last four games, they averaged just 358.7 yards per game, but averaged 8.71 points per 100 yards and were 4-0.

* The Eagles finished seventh in the league in time of possession. They averaged 31:20, which is their highest time of possession average since 1996 (32:12). It's worth noting that five of the six teams that finished ahead of the Eagles in TOP average - Houston, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and San Francisco - are in the playoffs. It's also worth noting that just one of those five teams - the Steelers - had more than 21 turnovers. The Eagles had 38, a number topped only by Tampa Bay's 40. The Steelers had 28.

* Vick's three-touchdown performance last week against the Redskins marked just the seventh time in his career that he's thrown three or more touchdowns in a game. That's three fewer times than Aaron Rodgers has done it this season.

* Brent Celek and Jeremy Maclin accounted for 19 of the Eagles' 37 red-zone receptions this season and nine of their 17 red-zone touchdown catches.

* The Eagles finished 14th in the league in red-zone offense with a 51.5 touchdown percentage (34-for-66). They also finished 14th last year with a 53.4 success rate (31-for-58). They haven't finished in the top 10 in red-zone offense since '06 (56.5, 10th). When they went to the Super Bowl in '04, they finished third (63.8).

* The Eagles scored just three times on their first possession of the game this season. They did a little better on their second possession, scoring four touchdowns and two field goals. Seven of the 25 interceptions thrown by Eagles quarterbacks came on their first two possessions.

* The Eagles' 24 takeaways this season were the second fewest of the Andy Reid era. They had just 19 in '07.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT QUARTERBACK

While linebacker and safety are the Eagles' two biggest areas of need heading into the offseason, the Eagles can't ignore the quarterback situation.

Michael Vick is coming off a disappointing season and will turn 32 in May. The Eagles are only financially committed to him for 1 more year. Unless they think Mike Kafka is their quarterback of the future, which I doubt they do, they need to think about selecting a quarterback fairly early in the April draft.

There is going to be a waiting line of teams trying to trade up to get Robert Griffin III, who could be the second pick in the draft behind Andrew Luck. After those two, the only other potential first-round quarterback at this point is Ryan Tannehill of Texas A&M. Oklahoma's Landry Jones also was considered a potential first-rounder by scouts, but he has decided to stay in school.

"Tannehill didn't have a great year, but the ball comes out efficiently," an NFC personnel man said. "He's a big, strong kid. They lost something like five games by six points or less. He's been criticized for not doing a lot in the fourth quarter, but from looking at the tape, it seemed to me he wasn't getting a lot of help from his receivers."

After Luck, Griffin and Tannehill, there's a group of six quarterbacks that could go anywhere from the second to sixth rounds depending on how things go in the all-star games and their pre-draft workouts - Russell Wilson of Wisconsin, Kirk Cousins of Michigan State, Nick Foles of Arizona, Ryan Lindley of San Diego State, Brandon Weeden of Oklahoma State and Kellen Moore of Boise State.

The best of that group probably is Wilson. But he's only 5-11, which is going to scare a lot of teams away, particularly a team like the Eagles who have seen enough batted passes to last a lifetime.

2-MINUTE DRILL

From the Lip:

* "I've always told the staff that our approach should be to hope for the best but plan for the worst, and I didn't do an adequate enough job of planning for the circumstances we were in. It led to this [2-14] catastrophe." - Fired Colts GM Bill Polian on his failure to find an adequate replacement for injured QB Peyton Manning

* "His rate of growth isn't where it needs to be, but I think the trajectory of his career after 3 years is. I think he's shown he can be a winning NFL quarterback, and that's what you need from the position. Do I think he's going to be Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or Drew Brees? Obviously that would be hard to say as of today. But I do think we can win a lot of games with Mark Sanchez." - Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum on QB Mark Sanchez

* "If you watched Mark Sanchez the last month of the season, he was like a Chihuahua standing on Madison Avenue and 36th Street entering the Midtown tunnel, eyes bigger than you-know-what, and just so shaky." - CBS studio analyst Boomer Esiason

* "With all due respect, we don't need God on our sidelines. Once again, God had to save Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos. He couldn't even give them two drives? Seven to three?" - Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs on Tebow and the Broncos backing into the playoffs despite a 7-3 loss to the Chiefs last week

By the Numbers

* Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald was targeted 154 times this season and had just one drop. The only three other receivers to be targeted more than 150 times this season were the Falcons' Roddy White (180), the Patriots' Wes Welker (173) and the Lions' Calvin Johnson (158). They combined for 22 drops.

* The Broncos are the fifth team in league history to qualify for the postseason after starting 2-5 or worse after seven games.

* The Saints' Drew Brees and the Lions' Matthew Stafford, whose teams will face each other Saturday, have combined for 10,514 passing yards this season. That's the most ever between two opposing starting quarterbacks in a playoff game.

* The wild-card game between the Bengals and Texans will mark the first time in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) that two rookie quarterbacks will start against each other in a playoff game (Andy Dalton, T.J. Yates).

* The Saints' Jimmy Graham and Darren Sproles are the first tight end-running back tandem in league history to both have 80-plus receptions. Graham had 99, Sproles 86.

* Believe It Or Not Dept.: According to R.J. Bell of Pregame.com, the Eagles would be favored on a neutral field against all but six NFL teams.

* Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin's 788 receiving yards are the most by an undrafted rookie since 1970. The previous high was 771 by the Raiders' James Jett in 1993.

THAT'S SAYING THUMBTHING

THUMBS UP: To Eagles tight end Brent Celek, who managed to have a Pro Bowl-caliber season this year despite playing with a torn labrum in his hip and a sports hernia. Celek had surgery to repair both earlier this week. While it's not certain when he got the sports hernia - since it never appeared on the Eagles' weekly injury reports during the season - he was first listed with a hip injury way back in Week 3. So it's fair to say he played most of the season with it. Despite that, he caught 53 passes for 738 yards and five touchdowns in the Eagles' last 11 games. He had a team-high 10 catches in the red zone and was a significant part of LeSean McCoy's rushing success this season with his blocking.

THUMBS DOWN: To Eagles owner Jeff Lurie for his lame defense of Andy Reid's news conference behavior. Lurie suggested that Reid is the way he is with the media because he's "protecting his players." But that's a cop out. The truth is he has just stopped trying. He's grown as weary of us as we have of him. Early on, he believed dealing with the media was an important part of his job. Came to news conferences prepared. Now? Now he arrives at our little get-togethers like he's getting ready to have a barium enema. His smart-ass response to Les Bowen's why-didn't-your-team-make-the-playoffs question last Sunday was inexcusable. But you know what also was inexcusable? The fact that he didn't even bother to mention that his starting center, Jason Kelce, injured his foot in the game. If you're going to start every news conference for 12 years with, "OK, injuries," at least be thorough.

DOMO'S NFL RANKINGS FOR JAN. 7

1 Packers 15-1 (1 last week)1

2 Saints 13-3 (2)

3 Patriots 13-3 (3)

4 49ers 13-3 (4)

5 Ravens 12-4 (5)

6 Steelers 12-4 (6)

7 Bengals 9-7 (7)

8 Lions 11-5 (8)

9 Falcons 10-6 (9)

10 Titans 9-7 (11)

11 Texans 10-6 (10)

12 Eagles 8-8 (13)

13 Giants 9-7 (16)

14 Cardinals 8-8 (20)

15 Seahawks 7-9 (12)

16 Cowboys 8-8 (15)

17 Chargers 8-8 (19)

18 Raiders 8-8 (17)

19 Jets 8-8 (14)

20 Broncos 8-8 (18)

21 Bears 8-8 (21)

22 Dolphins 6-10 (24)

23 Chiefs 7-9 (25)

24 Panthers 6-10 (22)

25 Bills 6-10 (23)

26 Browns 4-12 (26)

27 Redskins 5-11 (27)

28 Bucs 4-12 (28)

29 Jaguars 5-11 (30)

30 Vikings 3-13 (29)

31 Colts 2-14 (31)

32 Rams 2-14 (32)

DOMO'S ALL-PRO BALLOT

Daily News football columnist Paul Domowitch is one of 50 voters for the Associated Press' All-Pro team and its various awards, including Most Valuable Player. The ballots were due earlier this week and the results will be announced the night before the Super Bowl on NBC. To help out NBC Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, who has accused voters in the past of not having the guts to reveal whom they voted for, here's a look at Domo's ballot:

Most Valuable Player: Aaron Rodgers, QB, Packers

Coach of the Year: Jim Harbaugh, 49ers

Offensive Player of the Year: Drew Brees, QB, Saints

Defensive Player of the Year: Jason Pierre-Paul, DE, Giants

Comeback Player: D'Qwell Jackson, LB, Browns

Offensive Rookie: Cam Newton, QB, Panthers

Defensive Rookie: Von Miller, LB, Broncos

OFFENSE

WR (2): Calvin Johnson, Lions; Victor Cruz, Giants

TE (1): Rob Gronkowski, Patriots

T (2): Jason Peters, Eagles; Joe Staley, 49ers

G (2): Jahri Evans, Saints; Davin Joseph, Bucs

C (1): Maurkice Pouncey, Steelers

QB (1): Aaron Rodgers, Packers

RB (2): LeSean McCoy, Eagles; Ray Rice, Ravens

FB (1): Vonta Leach, Ravens

PK (1): David Akers, 49ers

KR (1): Patrick Peterson, Cardinals

DEFENSE

DE (2): Justin Smith, 49ers; Jared Allen, Vikings

DT (2): Haloti Nagota, Ravens; Mike Patterson, Eagles

OLB (2): DeMarcus Ware, Cowboys; Terrell Suggs, Ravens

ILB (2): Patrick Willis, 49ers; Navarro Bowman, 49ers

CB (2): Darrelle Revis, Jets; Champ Bailey, Broncos

S (2): Troy Polamalu, Steelers; Ed Reed, Ravens

P (1): Andy Lee, 49ers