Weeks after the Desean Jackson-Philadelphia Eagles drama dragged on for what felt like forever, Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and owner Jeffrey Lurie finally spoke on the matter earlier today.
While Kelly maintained the decision to part ways with Jackson was purely a football decision, Lurie seemed to go out of his way to lay the trade at Kelly’s feet.
Jeffrey Lurie also made it clear that Chip Kelly spearheaded the decision to release DeSean Jackson.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) April 28, 2014
#Eagles owner said Chip Kelly made it clear after the season that he wanted to go in another direction at wide receiver. DeSean wasn't a fit
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) April 28, 2014
It’s interesting that Lurie wanted to be sure it was known that this was Kelly’s idea. It seems like he is setting himself up to avoid any blame if Jackson comes in and torches the Eagles with his new Washington Redskins squad.
Another interesting tidbit is that, unsurprisingly, the Eagles did not receive an offer from any teams for Jackson according to Kelly.
Chip Kelly: "We had no offers for DeSean. It doesn't matter what we wanted, because we had no offers."
— Bart Hubbuch (@HubbuchNYP) April 28, 2014
It’s not hard to see why teams would not want to trade anything to the Eagles, who spent days throwing Jackson under the bus before finally releasing him. Everyone could see the parting coming from a mile away, so teams held onto their assets and waited for the chance to get Jackson on the open market.
Either way, at least this is all finally over with and we can look forward to some real football.