The retiring DeSean Jackson, the most exciting Eagles star ever, made big plays — and big mistakes

The career of DeSean Jackson, the most dynamic player in Eagles history, officially ended Wednesday. For a franchise that featured Randall Cunningham, Michael Vick, and Reggie White, that’s saying something.

In an era of mega-receivers, Jackson’s big-play ability transcended his position. There have been better Birds, but none quite like D-Jax, both on and off the field. He had his issues but his handlers endured them, because every time the ball flew his way he had the speed, elusiveness, hands, and fearlessness to turn every play into a memory. Into a legacy.

He has 26 touchdowns of 60 yards or more, most in NFL history. When Donovan McNabb or Vick or Nick Foles launched a deep ball, fans at Lincoln Financial Field would start an “aaaahhhh” sound that crescendoed when it landed in Jackson’s arms. No player of his era was better at tracking the pass, making the catch, keeping his balance, and blazing past defenders. Maybe no player in history.

Jackson spent his first six seasons as an Eagle, then returned for seasons 12 and 13, both tenures marred in different ways: the first by his immaturity, the second by his infirmity. Jackson constantly found trouble as a young player — minor trouble, but still — and then, as a 30-something, that wiry, 5-foot-10, 170-pound body continually betrayed him.

The kid who torched the Giants with a game-winning punt return was the same kid who became the bane of Atlantic City casinos, according to A.C. sources, and once got suspended for a game for being late to a practice. The man who returned in 2019, after leading the NFL for the fourth time in yards per catch at 18.9 in 2018 with Tampa Bay, played just eight games in two seasons and cost the team more than $17 million before the Birds cut him. He caught just 29 more passes for three teams the next two seasons, spent 2022 begging for a job (he played seven games for the Ravens), and finally gave up Wednesday after 15 seasons.

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The team will hold a press conference for Jackson at its practice facility Friday morning. He will act as an honorary captain Sunday when the 49ers visit.

It will be a giddy stroll down a memory lane littered with jaw-dropping moments.

It was the signature play of Jackson’s career: Dec. 19, 2010, the Miracle at the New Meadowlands. The Eagles had roared back from a 21-point deficit with less than nine minutes to play thanks to Vick’s two TD passes and his touchdown run. The defense held, so, with 14 seconds to to play, Giants coach Tom Coughlin instructed rookie punter Matt Dodge to kick the ball out of bounds, away from Jackson, who, by then, in his third season, had grown out of the role and was just an occasional punt returner. Jackson also had fumbled after a catch earlier in the game, so he had atonement to make.

Dodge said he tried to punt out of bounds, but instead he sent the ball directly to Jackson, who muffed it. He picked it up, ran 5 yards backward, and saw a seam up the middle of the field. He shot through it like a hunting cheetah — he once famously said, “Cheetahs don’t stretch” — and got a hellacious block that gave blocking teammate Jason Avant a concussion. He flew past a diving Dodge, got to the goal line, and ran across it, right to left, taunting the Giants, before sidling into the end zone. He threw the ball into the stands and cavorted with his elated teammates as Coughlin ran onto the field and screamed at Dodge.

Jackson could disappear for weeks at a time, but to the delight of Eagles fans, he almost always showed up against Dallas. He averaged 73.9 yards per game against the Cowboys, his highest average against any opponent he faced more than six times. Perhaps his best Eagles-Cowboys moment came the week before his miracle punt return: a career-best, 91-yard TD that broke the Cowboys’ spirit.

On Dec. 12, 2010, at Dallas, Jackson had already collected 119 receiving yards when the Eagles got the ball at their 9-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Vick faked a handoff and hit Jackson on a simple out route to the left sideline. His defender dove to deflect the pass, Jackson gathered himself, then simply outran everyone to the end zone.

He finished his journey with a Nestea Plunge, falling backward into the end zone. The play helped him set a career high with 210 receiving yards, but it also broke a tie, led to a win that moved the Eagles to 9-4, and assured that the 4-9 Cowboys would have a losing season.

Jackson went to the Pro Bowl in 2010 as a receiver after making it in 2009 as a returner, the first player to earn that honor at different positions. His 85-yard TD return against the Panthers in 2009 was the longest in the league that season and the longest of his career.

His 17.9 yards per catch from 2009-21 is the best among receivers who played at least 100 games, his 10,198 receiving yards in that time rank sixth, and his 56 touchdowns rank 18th.

He wasn’t the best receiver, or the most durable, but for more than a decade, no one was more electric.

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Jackson is retiring, not running for office, so we won’t dwell on the mistakes of a headstrong young man who came into the NFL when the league was still wrestling with player conduct issues and its own tarnishing image. But any discussion of DeSean must include his alarming record of indiscretions.

On the field he was a sloppy route-runner, a poor decoy, and an uninterested blocker, shortcomings magnified by the presence of master technicians like Avant and Jeremy Maclin. He hated double teams, he got shut down for long stretches, and largely was unproductive in the postseasons.

In his second NFL game, as he crossed the goal line, he flipped the football behind him, which negated what would have been a 61-yard TD (the Eagles quickly scored but lost the game). Jackson was unapologetic afterward. It was typical of the chip on his shoulder.

Jackson’s attitude and overenthusiastic family members earned him a reputation as a malcontent as a star at Cal, to the Eagles’ benefit: A clear first-round talent, he dropped to them in the second round of the 2008 draft. He leads his class by 2,676 receiving yards, and only one of the six receivers who were drafted before him — Jordy Nelson — has more than his 58 TD catches, but then, Jackson didn’t play most of his career with Aaron Rodgers.

After Jackson’s father, Bill, died in May 2010, Jackson became difficult to deal with. Disgruntled about his contract situation, he became reluctant to return punts and once, in 2010, he refused to practice returns before a game in Chicago. In 2011, he was suspended for a Sunday home game against Arizona for being late to a Saturday practice; the Eagles lost by four points and missed the playoffs at 8-8, one game behind the Giants in the NFC East, against whom the Eagles held the tiebreaker.

There were other situations.

Jackson said his house was robbed in September 2014 and lost $250,000 in cash and jewelry, an amount that was reduced by investigators by $100,000 on March 27, 2014 — the same day the Eagles cut Jackson. A story by nj.com linked the release not only to money the Eagles would save but also to dubious connections between Jackson and gangs from his native Los Angeles. Jackson, coming off his second Pro Bowl selection as a receiver, signed with Washington that season and torched the Eagles for 243 yards in two games.

» READ MORE: Cutting Jackson a low blow by the Eagles

As his star faded, the biggest splash Jackson made came in the 2020 offseason, when he posted an anti-Semitic message on social media that included a fake quote from Adolph Hitler. Jackson quickly apologized.

Jackson never returned to the Pro Bowl after leaving the Eagles, the byproduct of playing in the golden era of receivers like Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, Mike Evans, and Larry Fitzgerald. The Eagles took a long time to recover from his departure.

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The Eagles got a one-year Super Bowl surge in 2017, but that was the aberration. Today they feature A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, but it took them almost a decade to replicate the dynamism Jackson and Maclin provided from 2009-12.

Though Jackson also played for Washington, Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, the Los Angeles Rams, and Baltimore, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie was happy to treat him like he never left the nest: “DeSean Jackson ... captivated Eagles fans with his game-breaking speed, unique skill set, and explosive play.”

The Eagles’ Twitter/X account posted a statement from Jackson:

“I’ll forever be an Eagle.”