Philadelphia Eagles: 5 players who need to step up in Reagor’s absence
By David Esser
DeSean Jackson, WR
There’s no debating this one, veteran WR DeSean Jackson simply has to find a way to stay healthy through the first couple weeks of the season. It would be foolish to expect a full 16-game season from DJax at this stage in his career, but the Philadelphia Eagles really can’t afford another early departure this year.
One of the major reasons the Eagles drafted Reagor was to address the team’s overall lack of field stretching ability. The offense halted to a complete stand-still last year when Jackson went down, and it really never recovered. Reagor was viewed as the long-term DJax replacement to the offense, but now that the rookie has gone down, the team really needs one more solid year out of their veteran.
The impact Jackson had on the Eagles offense last year was seen pretty much immediately to kick off the season last year. He exploded for 154 yards and 2 TDs during his Week 1 homecoming, and Carson Wentz looked beyond comfortable throwing the football his direction.
That constant threat of Jackson exploding down the seams for a TD had Washington backpedaling throughout the entire second half, and it resulted in an opening week victory. With Reagor now out of the mix for the foreseeable future, Wentz and the Eagles are once again going to be relying on Jackson to create a majority of the team’s big plays early on.