Jackson's absence from OTAs has yet to be explained.


DeSean Jackson, along with cornerback Asante Samuel, missed OTAs today and, according to sources close to the team, no one is expecting them to participate at all this week.

The news isn't all that surprising for Samuel given the fact that he skipped an entire week of voluntary workouts last season as well. He's cited as having "personal issues" to deal with, but who knows whether or not that's true.

Samuel has shown that he doesn't look at these workouts as vital to part of his offseason, so it's likely he fed the Eagles some nonsense excuse knowing there's not a whole lot they can do.

Jackson's absence, on the other hand, is a bit more peculiar. He has been a gym-rat for his first two seasons and hasn't missed practices, but now, in the midst of contract uncertainty, he's missing not just a couple days, but an entire week's worth of practices.

So, of course, the first conclusion is it's his way of sending a message. He wants the Eagles to see that he doesn't have a problem missing workouts if he doesn't get the money he feels he deserves, even though he's already said he wasn't going to cause a problem over it.

But according to Adam Schefter, the absence is not contract-related.

"DeSean Jackson's absence from Eagles OTAs today is not contract related," Schefter Tweets. Not sure why he is missing, but am told it is not contract."

Schefter catches a bit of a hard time amongst bloggers and fans alike, but nine times out of ten the guy is right and his sources rarely let him down.

The word around Philly is that Jackson's absence is related to several different miscellaneous things he has to deal with, and is choosing to to skip the voluntary workouts in order to address whatever those things might be.

But even if he does have other things to deal with, the fact that he would choose right now to address them does speak to how he's feeling at the moment. If he wasn't seeking a new deal, would he have skipped practice in order to deal with these things?

He does have an agent who could deal with any PR-related events, and absent a death in the family there probably isn't anything all that pressing to deal with in that area.

So while there two sets of rumors floating around to explain Jackson's absence, the most likely scenario is that it's a combination of both. And if he's already missing workouts because he's unhappy about his current deal, it could mean a long offseason of headaches for the Birds.