Eagles Today

Former Eagles Head Coach Coming In December, Will DeSean Jackson Be There?

The Philadelphia Eagles 2008 second-round draft pick stopped by the team's minicamp, but will he back later this year?
DeSean Jackson (right) discusses things with Eagles head of security Big Dom during the team's minicamp on June 10, 2025.
DeSean Jackson (right) discusses things with Eagles head of security Big Dom during the team's minicamp on June 10, 2025. | Ed Kraccz/Eagles on SI

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PHILADELPHIA – DeSean Jackson stopped by Eagles’ one-day minicamp earlier in the week. Perhaps he will be back in South Philly when his former team hosts the Las Vegas Raiders on Dec. 14.

That’s the Chip Kelly game. Now the offensive coordinator with the Raiders, Kelly made two of the biggest head-scratching moves in franchise history in back-to-back years.

He simply cut Jackson after the 2013 season. Jackson, who was drafted in the second round by the Eagles in 2008, was coming off his best year in the NFL with 1,332 receiving yards and nine touchdowns.

A year later, Kelly sent running back LeSean ‘Shady’ McCoy to the Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso. McCoy was just a year removed from setting the Eagles’ single-season rushing record with 1,607 yards and was just 26 when he was dealt in 2015.

Kelly was fired months later and with one game still to go in the season. Jackson and McCoy have never stopped talking about how Kelly disrespected them.

Before Jackson turned up at the Eagles’ minicamp earlier this week, he sat down with Chris Long on his ‘Green Light with Chris Long’ podcast, which is a production of Yote House Media, at a South Philly cheesesteak spot.

One of the topics was Kelly.

Long’s question went like this: “It’s one of the most well-known rivalries between players and a former coach hearing you and Shady talk about it. I’m just talking from me there' s coaches I’ve had problems with but once I’m out, I’m kinda like, ‘ehh whatever.’ Is there any chance like what if you guys run into each other?” 

Jackson answered with an emphatic, “No!”

Then added, “He took millions of dollars off the table for me. If someone take millions of your plate and that’s how you feed your family, your kids and stuff - that’s the big thing for me. To say a pet peeve as a coach though, I’m pretty lenient. For one I’m not the police and two I’m not your dad. I expect you to do the right things on and off the field and I’ll give you the leeway.”

Jackson was just 27 when Kelly cut him and got nothing in return, and he went on to play nine more seasons in the NFL with two more 1,000-plus yard seasons.

Now the head football coach at Delaware State, after getting the job on Dec. 27 last year. The Hornets’ season will be over by the time the Raiders come to town. And maybe Jackson will return then, too.

To hear more of Jackson's ingterview with Long click the link. In it, you will also hear who is favorite teammate was to play with, the best safety he went against, his favorite touchdown, and more.

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Ed Kracz
ED KRACZ

Ed Kracz has been covering the Eagles full-time for over a decade and has written about Philadelphia sports since 1996. He wrote about the Phillies in the 2008 and 2009 World Series, the Flyers in their 2010 Stanely Cup playoff run to the finals, and was in Minnesota when the Eagles secured their first-ever Super Bowl win in 2017. Ed has received multiple writing awards as a sports journalist, including several top-five finishes in the Associated Press Sports Editors awards.

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