DeSean Jackson, wide receiver, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
There’s a bit of a false narrative floating around that Jackson will somehow come to the Buccaneers and act as the deep threat for Jameis Winston. Sure that might happen. In fact, we wouldn’t bet against him stretching the field opposite Mike Evans. There are, however, a few different things working against Jackson here.
The former CAL standout was drafted in the second round by Philadelphia back in 2008 primarily because of his game-breaking ability. It was a level of on-field speed we had not seen from a top-end receiving prospect coming out of college in some time.
Jackson would go on to lead the NFL in yards per reception in three of his first nine seasons, including last year with the Washington Redskins. That lends some credence to the idea that he might be able to repeat this feat for Tampa Bay in 2017.
Not so fast.
Jackson will turn 31 this upcoming season. It wouldn’t necessarily be a big deal if he were capable of being a possession receiver like we’ve seen from other veterans, namely Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.
The issue here is that as Jackson’s athleticism diminishes, he doesn’t have what it takes to change his game and to extend his career. Here’s a guy that caught just 56 percent of the passes thrown in his direction last season. To put that into perspective, Kirk Cousins completed passes at a 70 percent clip to the rest of his targets in D.C. during the 2016 campaign.
That tells us a story of someone that has been hit and miss recently. With his speed skills slipping, it will likely be more miss than hit moving forward. Now add in the fact that Jackson will now be catching balls from a quarterback in Jameis Winston that relies on receivers with huge catch radiuses, and there’s definitely cause for alarm here.