Birds hoping Jacksons can bolster D-Line, receiving corps

Watching superstars Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham Jr. switch teams for bargain prices is no way to start the new league year.

Not for a team like the Eagles, who let quarterback Nick Foles, their Super Bowl MVP, join the Jacksonville Jaguars.

That left defensive tackle Malik Jackson, the under-the-radar pass rusher cut by Jacksonville, of all teams, to put the happy face on the first day of the Eagles’ new year. Jackson thanked the Eagles for giving him a chance while also taking time to express his dissatisfaction over being benched last season, and more recently released by the Jaguars.

Jackson first gave a shoutout to the Eagles, who signed him to a contract worth $30 million.

“They’re a great organization that would give me another chance to go out here and be who I can be,” Jackson said. “And that’s all I can ask for. It was an easy decision.”

In terms of the benching in the middle of last season, it so frustrated Jackson he suggested his audience speak to the Jaguars’ coaches.

“They told me I wasn’t playing the run too good,” Jackson said. “And that’s all I really heard. But if you’re asking me, coming off the Pro Bowl year the year before, I don’t think that’s a valid excuse. I think I played good against the run, to be honest with you. But I just play. They make the decisions.”

The Eagles later confirmed they’d acquired wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who they cut six years ago, and a future seventh-round draft pick from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a sixth-rounder this spring. Jackson wanted out and he told head coach Bruce Arians he preferred the Eagles.

Decent haul that the Jacksons are, they’re not enough to warrant the Eagles striking fear into the hearts of the Dallas Cowboys or start preplanning for another championship parade route down Broad Street.