DeSean Jackson Profile from Cal Fans

Wrote up this miniprofile for Eagles fans to dissect, this is from someone who's watched him for two years so I hope it's helpful.

Upside

He's a big game receiver. It was amusing to see how much DeSean's stats would increase for a nationally televised game; he usually saved his best stuff for those games (including 3 primetime punt returns for TDs). I'm very interested to see how he'll perform on a Sunday Night tilt.

No one's going to deny his overall talent either. He has so much body control that you're always left guessing as to what he'll do next. He's capable of bringing his body to a complete stop and then turning on the accelerator, like he did in the big Oregon game (most impressive play's at around :37)

It's worth noting that some of his biggest receiving performances came against pretty good secondaries like UCLA and Arizon

Despite our struggles with Longshore as a QB, Jackson managed to perform very strongly in a three-pronged corps featuring Lavelle Hawkins and Robert Jordan, combining for 335 catches and 33 TDs.

He runs pretty good routes for a college receiver, certainly his biggest skill over Hawkins and Jordan. Especially against great secondaries, he was capable of burning the deep cover packages by his fake out abilities or his cutting skills to get wide open gaps.

He likes running reverses too, a natural extension of his punt returning skills and his natural ability to get to the edge.

Jerry Rice likes him. Usually a good sign.

Downside

He's small. Enough's been said about that. Jerry Rice was small too.

He gets hurt...or at the very least, ACTS like he's hurt. Whether he's being dramatic or not, like clockwork, you could predict Jackson falling to the ground at least once and taking himself out of every game for a few sequences. It's hard to say how difficult the contact was or how much pain he was in, but I can count the number of times that happened the past two years (taking himself out of the Washington game after a 'tweak' and sitting out the final two games, heading toward the sideline after a PI call in the faithful Oregon State game, or getting beheaded by Keith Ellison (okay, that one was legit). Cal fans are pretty forgiving in that regard, but I don't expect much of those shenanigans in Philly.

His blocking skills need plenty of work. I mean, he'll do the prefunctory arm block and lock the corner up, but only for a few seconds. In the NFL he'll certainly need to work on that.

There were reports of locker room problems in Cal, and many of them centered around a star wide receiver causing friction inside the team. No one has ever specifically said who it was, but mainstream authorities have already assumed it was him and thought the worst about him. I'm not going to defend Jackson's supposed behavior, but I do think last year's collapse was one of the worst possible things that you can ever experience as a player, and it brought out the worst in the fans, the players and the coaches. It's just a miserable experience to go from #1 for two hours to 6-6.

Anyway, this is about as much as I've learned about DeSean from the tape; if I see anything else I'll let you know.

Hope this helped!
BearsNecessity