Philadelphia Eagles: The Carson Wentz-DeSean Jackson love affair is real
One game into their shared Philadelphia Eagles tenure, the Carson Wentz-DeSean Jackson Love affair already looks legendary.
If you didn’t start DeSean Jackson in Fantasy Football this week, you probably feel a bit foolish.
While many ‘experts’ considered D-Jax a borderline-draftable player at best, the once, current, and future Philadelphia Eagles speedster did not disappoint in his first game at Lincoln Financial Field in midnight green since 2013; hauling in eight balls for 154 yards and two touchdowns on the afternoon.
But these weren’t your usual run-of-the-mill touchdowns. No, Jackson was the recipient of a pair of 50-plus yard bombs from Carson Wentz.
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Now for fans who’ve kept up with the team over the summer, the seeds of a Jackson-Wentz love affair have been thoroughly planted, but you never quite know how a summer fling will translate into the regular season; just ask former preseason stars like Greg Ward, DeAndre Carter, and Daeshon Hall.
With a variable powder keg of excitement for D-Jax and company – as highlighted by an early flag for fighting with Washington DB Quinton Dunbar – and a slow start, it looked like all of the hype surrounding Philly’s Super Bowl aspirations may have been overblown – just ask the booing fans at Lincoln Financial Field.
But a certain 32-year-old veteran wasn’t going to let his current club fall to his clearly inferior former team that easily.
No, on third-and-10 with 4:27 left to play in the second quarter, Doug Pederson drew up a deep concept to capitalize on Jackson’s blazing fast 4.3 speed and was rewarded for his confidence with a 51-yard touchdown.
And could you ask for a better way for the Eagles to record their first touchdown of the season than the ultimate D-Jax bomb?
You couldn’t have written a better start to the team’s eventual comeback.
Had that been Jackson’s lone highlight play of the game, many fans would have been whole-heartedly content, but do you really think a showman of number 10’s caliber would stop there?
No, Jackson hauled in a second 50-plus yard touchdown – now a 53-yarder – on another third-and-10 to give Philly their first lead of the afternoon – a lead that they wouldn’t surrender for the final 20 minutes of the game.
For those who did start Jackson in fantasy, they were awarded with 27 points in a traditional league – the best mark of any receiver as of the time of this article’s publication.
Though it would be a bit presumptuous to assume that Jackson will keep up his current pace over a full 16 game season, as he would be on pace for an all-time record 2,464 yards and 32 touchdowns, in Pederson’s option-heavy hybrid West Coast-spread offense he really doesn’t have to be prolific.
dark. Next. Wendell Smallwood still bleeds green in Washington
No, just the awareness of DeSean Jackson and Carson Wentz’s honeymoon should radically change how teams prepare for the Philadelphia Eagles over the forthcoming season, a serious advantage for a team that also has Darren Sproles, Alshon Jeffery, and Nelson Agholor in heavy rotation.