Free-agent wide receiver DeSean Jackson signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have been due to a lack of interest on the part of the Los Angeles Rams.
That’s what MMQB podcast hosts Andy Benoit and Gary Gramling insinuated in their recent MMQB’s 10 Things audio (h/t Turf Show Times).
During a long discussion about the Rams, Benoit and Gramling speculated about the team’s chances for improvement on offense without an identifiable No. 1 pass-catching threat. Gramling lamented that the Rams didn’t go after Alshon Jeffery or Terrelle Pryor, based on their contracts with their new teams (Jeffery signed a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles worth $9.5 million, while Pryor accepted a one-year offer from the Washington Redskins worth $6 million).
But Benoit said he thought the Rams could’ve acquired one of the free-agent big names had they so desired.
“…I believe Jackson would’ve followed (Rams head coach Sean) McVay to Los Angeles if they’d wanted him,” Benoit said, “so they didn’t want DeSean Jackson, reading between the lines. I’m just guessing at that.”
Based on the Jackson signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (three years, $33.5 million), it’s hard to believe that either the Rams would’ve offered him that much money and jeopardized signing anyone else with their limited cap space or that he would’ve accepted less money to go to a team that on paper seems a lot further away from becoming a contender than the Bucs.
Benoit went on to say that Jackson would’ve fit into a system with which he’s familiar in Los Angeles and would have given the Rams a speedy deep threat.
“Maybe it’s about him, personally,” Benoit said. “What kind of effort do you get? ‘Can we trust what he does?’ I don’t know.”
Certainly, a Jackson signing would have brought more excitement to the McVay regime as the Rams look forward to 2017. Then again, the franchise’s last attempt at generating excitement—trading up for the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, ended up costing the previous head coach his job.
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