Eagles are expected to franchise DeSean Jackson
The deadline for NFL franchises to designate a player as their franchise player is March 5th and Eagles beat writer Jeff McLane from the Philadelphia Inquirer writes "count on" the Eagles franchising receiver DeSean Jackson by then.
Teams can begin to designate their franchise players, if applicable, on February 20th.
While he certainly outplayed the value of his rookie contract (four years for $3 million), Jackson let his frustration with the lack of new deal get the better of him.
If the Eagles franchise him, however, he would then earn roughly $9.5 million, which is the average of the top-five salaries at wide receiver for 2012. According to McLane, Jackson had previously stated that he would not have any problems with signing and playing under the franchise tag.
With him under contract for the 2012 season, they would then be able to trade him or sign him to a long-term deal in addition to having him play out the one-year contract as the team's franchise player.
Jackson had his lowest receiving yards (961), yards per reception (16.6) and receiving touchdowns (four) since his rookie season (2008).
I'm a bit skeptical that Jackson will be happy playing under the franchise tag, as many players aren't, and have ranked him 31st in our initial 2012 fantasy football wide receiver rankings. I would definitely prefer Jeremy Maclin, who is ranked 20th, over Jackson.
