Howie Roseman doesnt sound like somebody whos in a huge hurry to cut ties with DeSean Jackson.
We feel very fortunate to have him on our team, Roseman said Thursday. He's a player that we drafted, we've grown (with), and we think he's got a great future ahead of us.
Now that the future of head coach Andy Reid and defensive coordinator Juan Castillo have been settled, Jacksons future is the No. 1 issue facing the Eagles this offseason.
Jackson, whose 17 career touchdowns of 40 yards or more are sixth-most in NFL history by a player 25 years old or younger, is due to become an unrestricted free agent next month after four seasons and two Pro Bowls with the Eagles.
Roseman addressed the explosive but inconsistent wide receiver and much more Thursday in an interview with Comcast SportsNets Neil Hartman at the Seventh Annual Sports and Entertainment Law CLE (continuing legal education) Symposium at Widener University Law School in Wilmington, Del.
Jacksons agent, Drew Rosenhaus, is the same guy that represented Terrell Owens during his ugly 2005 season, which ended with the Eagles suspending Owens, refusing to pay him and barring him from their complex.
But Roseman said that history wont be a detriment to productive talks between the two sides. He said his relationship with Rosenhaus is now a strong one.
NFL
Very productive, he said. I think that it's grown a lot from 2005. I think we all learned a lot from what happened at that point, and I have no problem talking to him, spending time with him, and I think the relationship is continuing to build and it's going to continue to get better.
Roseman scoffed at a published report from last week that indicated that the Eagles would franchise Jackson, giving him a one-year guaranteed 9.4 million salary and either trade him or keep him, if they were unable to sign him to a long-term deal.
He scoffed because there really arent any other options available to the Eagles, other than simply letting him walk.
I read that report, and I saw putting out every possible option as it came to DeSean Jackson, so I didn't think there was anything for any of us to respond to, he said. As it comes to our matters with our players, we're going to try to communicate to them first and their representative first because we want to have that kind of relationship with our players.
We want to know that it's going to come from us. They're not going to have to hear it anywhere else, and if they hear things outside, noise outside of the building, that it's not going to matter unless they hear it from someone coming from the Philadelphia Eagles.
Roseman indicated that he and Rosenhaus would communicate, most likely at the NFL scouting combine, which starts next week in Indianapolis. Teams can start franchising players on Monday. Free agency starts on March 13.
I can't tell you that something's going to happen Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, just because of the nature of other things that are going on, Roseman said. We're all going to the combine, we're all going to be together at the combine, so I wouldn't read anything into the timing of any of this, and we're all looking for a productive outcome.
Jackson earned 685,000 last year on the final year of the four-year, 3,079,840 million contract he signed when the Eagles drafted him in 2008. The franchise tag, as soon as he signed it, would guarantee Jackson more than three times more money than hes earned in his entire career so far.
Jacksons frustration with his rookie contract after he clearly outperformed the deal was at the root of his unhappiness last year, when he held out of training camp and was suspended for a game against Arizona after missing a mandatory team meeting.
Without Jackson, the Eagles lost to the Cards and finished the season 8-8. You can make a case that if both sides handled the situation differently and Jackson had played against Arizona, the Eagles would have beaten Arizona, the Giants never would have made the playoffs, the Eagles would have won the NFC East, and who knows what else would be different.
Hartman asked Roseman whether he could have handled Jacksons situation differently.
The only that I can do is think of the actions that I did and try to learn from them and get better, he said. But in terms of going back and figuring out what we could've done better, I think you can only build on the future and try to make things right, in the future for our football team.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com