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CSN's Derrick Gunn reports that the Philadelphia Eagles are listening to offers for wide receiver DeSean Jackson- and that the Patriots are one of a couple teams that have reached out.
Jackson is a 5'10, 175 lbs speedster with 4.3 speed and tremendous ability. He's also a tremendous diva and has already started to ask for his contract to be restructured before the mega-deal he signed was even half over. Then again, the Patriots just signed a similar player in Darrelle Revis, so who knows if that would deter the Patriots.
Jackson is coming off the best season of his career, grabbing 82 catches for 1332 yards and 9 touchdowns. He's also at the peak of his contract, which was structured to be more team-friendly on the back-end. He still comes with a $12.75 million cap hit, but it falls to $12 million in 2015 and $10.5 million in 2016.
The Patriots have shown that they aren't content with using the same receivers last year. If the acquisition of Brandon LaFell was a point for Kenbrell Thompkins, sniffing around Jackson should be an affront on current speedster Josh Boyce.
Personally, I 'm not sure how the Patriots could obtain Jackson. They currently stand with under approximately $5 mill in cap space, so the only way this deal happens is if there's a straight up exchange between Jackson and Danny Amendola + a draft pick. Which actually doesn't sound too terrible. Edit: Apparently the Eagles are only looking for a third round pick. I'm sure Belichick is wondering if a fourth rounder will do.
Jackson had quality hands (5.85% drop rate, 7th best in the league), which is always a benefi. My main concern would be playing to Tom Brady's weakness of a poor sideline deep ball, where Jackson was second in the league in percentage of deep targets (33 of his 119 targets were deep, second to Baltimore's Torrey Smith). If the Patriots can find another role for Jackson, then I could see him working in the offense. If he's used as a deep target, his value won't match his price tag.