Eagles should rest DeSean Jackson until after bye week

DeSean Jackson has been missing in action for the Philadelphia Eagles since Week 2 due to an injury.

Instead of trading for a wide receiver before the trade deadline, the Philadelphia Eagles seem confident enough that DeSean Jackson will return to full strength sooner rather than later to help the team make a final push for the playoffs over these final two months.

Looking back, if the Eagles knew Jackson would be out since Week 2, chances are they most likely would have pulled the trigger in a trade for another wideout to help fill the void in the meantime.

But since this is the perfect example of too little, too late for Philadelphia with the trade deadline ending on Tuesday, all the team can do is focus on hoping Jackson returns sooner rather than later.

With that being said, the Eagles did receive some good news on Wednesday in regards to Jackson after the veteran speedster returned to practice for the first time since straining his abdominal muscle in Week 2.

Depending on how the next couple of days go, it’s tough not to think that Jackson will be ready to go by Sunday when Philadelphia takes on one of the toughest defenses the league has to offer in the Chicago Bears.

However, since there will rightfully be plenty of concern surrounding Jackson to potentially re-aggravate the injury if he were to take the field on Sunday, the Eagles may just want to consider resting him a bit longer to avoid the risk.

When looking at how impressive Chicago’s defense has been throughout the 2019 season at times, the Eagles would obviously love to have as many weapons as possible to have a better chance in this one.

Jackson wasted little time showing what kind of impact he could bring to Philadelphia’s passing game back in Week 1 when he torched the defense of the Washington Redskins with eight catches for 154 yards to go along a touchdown.

And while numbers like these would certainly give the Eagles a major advantage over the Bears’ defense if Jackson were to find a way to make it happen, Philadelphia also has to think about the long run with their beloved wideout.

Since the Eagles have already found ways to get by over the previous six games, having Jackson sit another contest just to allow some extra rest as a result of the bye week isn’t exactly the worst idea in the world.

If anything, Philadelphia should prefer to have Jackson fully healthy with no concerns for the final seven games of regular season action since there’s a good chance the battle for the NFC East title will go right down to the wire.