Jaws: Blame coaches, not DeSean
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Jaws: Blame coaches, not DeSean
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
Yesterday, Andy Reid took aim at the NFL Network, blaming them for painting DeSean Jackson in a negative light during Thursday night's game against the Seahawks.
"I’m disappointed with the NFL Network, very disappointed in the way they portrayed that," Reid said. "I’m going to tell you now that DeSean was all-in in that game, and he had a great attitude during that game. You can take a camera and make some things look any way you want to make it look, but that kid was all-in last night. I was proud of him for that."
At one point, the broadcast showed what appeared to be Jackson not looking for the football when he ran his route down the left sideline. Reid explained that Jackson's job on the route was to occupy the corner and safety and clear room for the Jason Avant and Brent Celek. In other words, per Reid, Jackson was doing exactly what he was supposed to do.
There are a couple ways to view Reid's comments. On one hand, the Eagles are 4-8; he appears to have no answers to what's gone wrong; and the last thing he needs to do is call out his star wide receiver when speaking with the media.
On the other hand, Reid went out of his way to vehemently defend Jackson, something he did not do the week before. Reid benched Jackson in the fourth quarter against the Patriots and gave terse responses when asked about his play.
So, perhaps it is reasonable to think that what we saw on TV didn't accurately reflect what was happening on the field.
ESPN analyst and former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski certainly feels that way. In an interview with Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio, Jaws vehemently defended Jackson and blamed the coaching staff for the way they've dealt with the wide receiver.
"It's Andy Reid's responsibility to get 53 guys ready every week to play," Jaworski said. "Then it becomes Marty Mornhingweg's role as the offensive coordinator to get his offensive guys ready. Then it's David Culley, the wide receivers coach to make sure DeSean Jackson is ready to play and he's in the right frame of mind. And then it goes to the quarterback to have his arms around that guy so you develop that trust that is so critical. So I think there are a lot of people at fault right now why DeSean Jackson is going south."
Jaworksi also addressed Jackson's performance the previous week against New England, when he dropped three passes and appeared to avoid contact on two of them.
"There were certain times last week DeSean Jackson took a lot of heat for backing away from a hit, making a business decision," Jaworski said. "Well the fact of the matter is, when you look at the tape, he ran the wrong route. It wasn't a matter of making a business decision, not taking a hit. It was a zone defense on a crossing route. You sit down, and he's got an easy touchdown. So now it comes back to: Is the coaching staff getting him in the right frame of mind to play the game?"
Jaworski added that he plans on looking at the tape from the Seahawks game to provide better details on Jackson's effort and performance.
As I mentioned Thursday morning, the Jackson saga is the most fascinating storyline to monitor the rest of the way and into the offseason. In the next month, we'll find out if the situation is salvageable or if Jackson will be playing in another uniform in 2012.
If you missed my posts from Friday, I published Man Up on the defense and a second post about Pete Carroll taking issue with Trent Cole for injuring Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung late in the game.
One programming note: Since the Eagles don't play on Sunday, I'm out of town for the weekend. That means Man Up on the offense will likely have to wait until Monday. I'm sure (somehow) you'll survive.
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@jjthree - Stay with a winner? The NFL is about one thing...it's not winning percentage, it's not playoff appearances, it's not the number of division or conference titles, it's none of these things...it's Superbowl WINS! So, no Reid is NOT a winner!
I've been a Reid supporter for years, but I tired of him fielding mediocre teams and getting to the playoffs only to win one or two games and going home! To quote Bill Clinton, "it's time for a change!"— gdibig- gdibig, you're mathematically illiterate. SB wins are extremely rare events, when viewed from the narrow perspective of a single coach or team. On average, a team will win the DB only once every 32 years in the present NFL. Given their rarity, it is nonsense to use SB wins as a metric for evaluating coaches. Think about it, genius: an average team/coach wins the SB once every 32 years. A team/coach that is twice as good as average would win about every 16 years. Reid hasn't even been coaching that long! We might rightly judge Reid to be a bad coach by other means (such as his idiotic gametime decisions) but on the basis of a lack of SB wins in 13 years, the argument only makes sense to the mathematically illiterate. Evaluating by playoff appearances/wins makes perfect sense because these variables can reasonably be said to correlate with SB wins and they are far less rare. So, yes it *is* about winning percentages, playoff appearances and all the other stuff.
- Onedayer has this exactly right. Jaws is out of his mind.
And by the way, he and the crew did an absolutely TERRIBLE job calling the eagles / bears game.
Sheil - great job and enjoy the long wkd— Mr. Magee - Jaws was 1/3 right. Jackson also has responsibility to his team even though he has been treated unfairly by the organization. He should have asked for his relief or to be traded. The other 1/3 blame belongs to the gold standard front office. If they were going to play games with him and pay Steve Smith about 10 times Jackson's salary, they should have either released Jackson or attempted to trade him for draft picks. They knew his personality and they already had experience with getting tough with TO and all that happened was a divided team and a losing record. What a surprise that by taking a tough stand and playing games with Jackson that the outcome again is a divided team and a losing record. Actually. they treated Jackson worst than TO as TO did have a contract.
In a violent sport like pro football, every play could be a player's last play and for a small receiver whose main asset is blinding speed, any kind of knee or leg injury could mean the end of his career. Did they really think that he would put Laurie and Banner ahead of his own financial interests? Would you?— Drumgoole - The coaching is horrible and the players are NOT team oriented....BUT, who signed the contract and WON'T live up to it...DeSean. He was not FORCED to agree to it. His past poor behavior (in HS and College) dictated he be drafted low and not paid well. It was up to him to prove ALL wrong, and he ALMOST did, until this year. You reap what you sow.............— recGUY
- The coaching is horrible and the players are NOT team oriented....BUT, who signed the contract and WON'T live up to it...DeSean. He was not FORCED to agree to it. His past poor behavior (in HS and College) dictated he be drafted low and not paid well. It was up to him to prove ALL wrong, and he ALMOST did, until this year. You reap what you sow.............— recGUY
- yes, yes, yes. we all know the staff is to blame! what we should be talking about is what will it actually take to start anew at head coach! the next draft could potentially provide us with a QB of the future and an LB of the future if we have the right staff in place!— otown philly fan
- How bout Steve Spagnola, Herm Edwards, Bill Cowher, Jeff Fisher, Brian Belchik, Jon Gruden??? There is a list of possibles. Who is the latest hot college coach or NFL assistant/coordinator??? — captainboss
- let's bring Jaws in as the GM— bleedgreen
- Give Jackson a break. He gets less than the long snapper and has more than fulfilled his existing contract. It's like asking the bag boy to run the grocery store, but still paying him like the bag boy.— jtj06
- The saga this year shows how negotiations can go bad. The agent insists on a 20 million raise, and management says, "how about another $50,000." The result is nothing gets done, bad blood develops, and the player sees no alternative but to avoid getting hurt.— 4thand10
- Keep Desean and pay the guy! How can this organization pay Steve Smith $2M this year and Jackson $600K? They are getting nothing from Smith for that $2M and should have cut him and sent the savings to Jackson as a jesture that he will be taken care of and is important to the team. People seem to forgot too easily how good he was last year and how they felt when he returned that punt against the hated Giants! We will really regret having him in another teams uniform and watching him on highlight reels each week.— connorjr
- I heard this nonsense on Mike and Mike. How is it one adult's responsibility to get another adult to act like an adult? Only a child thinks like that. It is entertaining to see that Jackson is costing himself serious money with his drops, nonchalance and cowardice. Bu-bye to the 2nd best receiver on the team.— 2ndNlong
- recGUY, DeSean signed a rookie contract, his only other option was holding out which would have been a very bad move for a young player.
- Nonsense Jaws. It's the player's responsibility to act like a pro. Ridiculous to think they need all this mollycoddling just to get them to do what they are supposed to do in the first place. I blame the Eagles FO and coaching for the state of the team but Jackson's drops and running the wrong routes are on Jackson. The Eagles are at fault for letting this situation fester for 2 years. They have let DJ swing in the wind talking as if they will renegotiate the contract while doing nothing. Some of that may be Ratzenhaus's fault but that doesn't excuse Jackson's conduct the last few games. I can understand DJ being upset at all the money thrown at FAs this year. They are players who have contributed NOTHING to the Eagles but that still doesn't excuse Jackson's conduct which have hurt the team. I'm surprised his team mates tolerate it but that's where the lack of a Dawk or Reggie White is sorely missing on this team. It all just shows what a complete mess this team has become and the blame goes to the ones who created it. Blow it up and start over.— tpizza
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