It’s fitting that Desean Jackson’s return may coincide with Halloween. He makes everybody afraid.
I’m terrified he’ll re-aggravate his injury. If he does, scrap the season. His presence makes this offense work because of the way every defense has to deploy their safeties deep when he’s on the field, in order to give the CBs help with Jackson’s Ferrari routes. When you fear getting beaten over the top, you keep safeties back. They’re called safeties for a reason, after all.
We’ve now witnessed the grim, gory truth of Philadelphia’s offensive dilemma without him. The other skill guys have not won their matchups in his absence. Alshon runs bad routes and looks lethargic. Zach Ertz is not superhuman enough to defeat double teams in vintage Gronkowski-like fashion. Nelson Agholor has played like 2016 Nelson Agholor. Mack Hollins and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside have tried really hard.
Bottom line, routes have been run, yet routes are not being won. And Carson Wentz is left to run around and try to buy more time while hoping his average-at-separating receivers pull an upset or a defender falls down. Or someone draws a pass-interference call. The Eagles have only drawn 2 of those for 21 yards in 2019. Pedestrian.
The Eagles offense looked anything but in Week 1, when Desean was on the field. He ran by everybody and tracked the ball (unlike Agholor) and scored a couple TDs while averaging 19.2 yards on each of his eight catches. This man can not be left unchecked and he proved it. That game tape alone impacts the defensive deployment of every Eagles opponent this season.
Desean Jackson scares defensive coordinators when he blows by DBs, so they decide to stay conservative with a deep safety net— less guys in the box to stop the run. Rushing production improves. Our medium receivers all have more room to work with Desean drawing coverage. Two safeties deep means seam routes work like a charm for Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert— and Miles Sanders, for that matter. Oh yeah, and Darren Sproles now, too.
Sproles is back from his quad injury— he got a full practice in on Friday. In Sproles’ injury-absence, Miles Sanders has evolved into the receiving back in this offense. The one that the offensive staff schemes to get open. If the Eagles see man coverage, Carson Wentz is equipped with audibles to isolate Sanders on a linebacker who will struggle to run with him downfield. Huge gains result.
With Sproles healthy, who’s put in the game to run those routes against the Bears? The “precocious-when-we’re-passing, explosive and recently opportunistic” Miles Sanders, who left the game in Buffalo due to a shoulder injury but only missed one day of practice and is dying to continue to shine, or “old and venerable and respected and finally healed enough to try to justify the roster spot they’ve been holding for him” Sproles? How about both? And throw Jordan Howard out there, too, for good measure. Let’s get our best offensive players on the field together. What do we have to lose?
I don’t think 32 personnel, 3 backs, 2 tight ends, no wide receivers in the regular field is out of the question at this point— especially because our wide receivers have been barely mediocre. I’d been clamoring for “pony personnel”, which is two tailbacks in the game, for a while. We finally utilized the pony grouping in the last two games and we now have two touchdowns to show for it— the Dallas Goedert TD against the Cowboys and the Miles Sanders 65-yarder against the Bills.
I expect a lot more “pony”, especially with Sproles in the mix. Let’s up the ante and go three tailbacks— wishbone offense for the win.