Philadelphia Eagles: DeSean Jackson or Kenny Stills in Free Agency?
Which wide receiver should the Eagles sign in 2017 NFL free agency: DeSean Jackson or Kenny Stills?
As the Philadelphia Eagles are gearing up for the 2017 free agency period, which begins on March 9 at 9 p.m. ET (tampering period starts March 7), there is a big debate for many fans and analysts. Should the Eagles should target wide receiver DeSean Jackson over wide receiver Kenny Stills, or should they target Stills over Jackson?
Without football being on, the debate has helped filled a void that many are missing, but in my opinion, that is all this is—just a football debate to fill a void. I feel that targeting Jackson over Stills is a no-brainer. Let's start debunking the theory that the Eagles need to target Stills over Jackson.
Stills is entering his fifth year in the NFL and has never had 1,000 or more yards in a season. His highest total (913) came in 2014 with the New Orleans Saints, who traded Stills before the 2015 season for a third-round pick to the Miami Dolphins. That mean if Stills signs with someone other than the Saints or the Dolphins, he will play for three teams in five years. You have to assume that, if Stills was an elite talent or teams saw elite potential in his game, he would not be in this scenario.
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Staying on Stills, he has never caught more than 50 passes in a season and outside of that 2014 seasons when he caught 63 passes, Stills' next highest total was 42 receptions. The former Dolphin's longest touchdown of his career was 76 yards. So why are Eagles fans and analysts thinking Stills is the guy the Eagles should target instead of Jackson?
His career yards per reception is impressive, sitting at 16.7 and he is coming off of a career-high nine-touchdown season in 2016. Stills averaged 17.3 yards per reception and was a solid deep threat for the Dolphins this past season. However, those aren't the numbers that people put the most weight into. At just 24 years old, though, the thought is that the young player is getting ready to hit his prime and have a breakout season.
The argument is that the 30-year-old Jackson will start to decline while the 24-year-old Stills will start to rise. It makes sense—if this were a video game. In a perfect world, the younger player will start to perform better than the older player, but you need grounds and factual evidence to support the claim that Stills will be a better asset than Jackson. However, the numbers and facts just aren't there.
Jackson has played nine NFL seasons and has gone over 1,000 yards five times. That means Stills will need to go over 1,000 yards, something he has never done, for the next four seasons to match Jackson. He has also caught over 50 passes six times in his career, and did so in three out of his first four seasons in the NFL, grabbing 47 in the year he failed to reach that mark.
Hearing this, people will say that was over Jackson's career, but now it is about the present and the future. Well, last season Jackson caught 52 passes for 1,005 yards and four scores. He did that in 15 games, one less than Stills, and he averaged 17.9 yards per catch, best in the NFL. So, in present time, Jackson remains better than Stills.
In the last four seasons, the first four seasons for Stills (2013-16), Jackson has more receptions, yards, and touchdowns than Stills. He also averages more yards per reception than Stills and has an impressive 19 yards per receptions rate over his last three years.
Saying the Eagles should target Stills over Jackson sounds good, but the facts prove otherwise. Outside of age, why would the Eagles want Stills over Jackson? Even if Jackson slows down in two or three years, those are two or three years of elite play by a guy who will be in the Hall of Fame when he's done playing.
By signing Jackson over Stills, the Eagles get a sure-fire deep threat and someone who will stretch the field for their offense. It gives their franchise quarterback Carson Wentz a veteran target that he can trust. Signing Stills does the complete opposite. It guarantees nothing and, if Stills does what he has been doing so far in his career, Wentz would have another mediocre wide receiver that he can't depend on.
If the future is what many people are putting weight on, the arrow still points to Jackson being the better option over Stills. The numbers and facts don't lie, and Jackson is the wide receiver the Eagles should target when free agency opens, not Stills.
