At this point I think we can stop the question of if DeSean Jackson will become an ex-Eagle and focus on when that will happen. Everyday the reports grow in volume and strength. Just a week ago Jeff McLane slammed the door on the notion of DeSean being traded. Now that’s changed.

The Eagles have intensified their efforts to trade Pro Bowl wide receiver DeSean Jackson in the last week, according to three independent NFL sources.

While there have been earlier reports that teams reached out to inquire about Jackson, in several cases it has been the Eagles that have directly or indirectly shopped the wide receiver to gauge interest, two of the sources said.

The team had no comment on Friday.

The Eagles’ marketing of Jackson leads to the near inevitable conclusion that he will not be with the team this season.

I don’t mention this as criticism of McLane. The initial report did seem crazy. McLane checked with his sources and heard no info about Jackson being on the outs. Obviously McLane talked to some new sources and got a very different story.

No one is sure exactly what to make of this situation right now. Confusion runs rampant.

Many of you have asked how I think the Eagles have handled the situation. The knee-jerk reaction is to rip them for letting this turn into a disaster. But I’m not sure that’s totally fair.

Any team thinking about acquiring DeSean Jackson would be wise to find out exactly why the Eagles are done with him. — ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 22, 2014

Always more that is going on behind closed doors of an #NFL franchise than you can possibly imagine – good and bad. — Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) March 22, 2014

Right now the Eagles know all the facts. We don’t. We can only speculate about what caused a seemingly benign situation to go toxic so quickly. It sure feels like the Eagles know something we don’t.

Back in 1990 the Eagles made a shocking cut of a gifted young WR. Cris Carter hauled in 11 TD passes in 1989 and was given his walking papers after the season was over. The Eagles caught a lot of flak for this. Buddy Ryan’s infamous response, “All he does is catch touchdowns.”

Later on we found out that Carter was an alcoholic and drug addict. Carter will tell you that Buddy Ryan not only saved his career, but saved his life by cutting him. Carter had his”moment of clarity” when he got cut. That caused him so sober up and change his life.

My point isn’t to say that DeSean has the same situation as Carter did, but rather that there could be unknowns that will help the situation to make more sense down the road. If this is just about sideline spats with Bob Bicknell, DeSean not fitting the Chip Kelly way and things like that, I will be disappointed for sure.

I’m not going to speculate on what issues there could be with Jackson. Do that as you like. You do read stuff like this and it does make you wonder what goes on around him.

Some looking out for DeSean's interests prefer that he stays on east coast, away from distractions near home. Might not have say in matter. — Tim McManus (@Tim_McManus) March 22, 2014

This is one weird situation that still has a long way to go. We may not know the full story for a while.

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