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Desean Jackson: student of the game

I came upon this great tidbit from the Eagles website about Desean Jackson's study habits...

Jackson does not just rely on his offensive coaches or offensive teammates to help. He quizzes Eagles cornerbacks Lito Sheppard, Sheldon Brown and Asante Samuel before, during and after practice.

"It's rare for a young guy to do that," said head coach Andy Reid this morning. "Normally, they are just concentrating on themselves and learning the offense. But I know he asks those corners if he's giving away any tendencies or any indicators on his specific routes. And then on the flip side, he'll check with those cornerbacks on their techniques they use to defend a certain route he'll run. He's very open to that communication and it's helping him."

Daryl Johnston had some interesting analysis about a subtle thing Jackson does that throws defenders off. He puts his hands out to catch the ball at the least possible second, so if the defender does take his eyes off Jackson to look back he never knows the ball is coming. Jackson's second big catch last Sunday was thanks to this. If he were to telegraph that the ball was coming his way the defender would have time to make a play on it. Smart kid.

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