Buccaneers: Five Reasons the DeSean Jackson Signing is a Great Move
Special Teams
Hasn’t it been the longest time since the Bucs have had a legitimate threat in the return game? It certainly feels like it has been about a billion years or so. They have run many players back there, most notably Adam Humphries as of late. None of these guys have been a threat to take it to the house. They have never had the Devin Hester type, the guy that teams kick the ball away from.
There have been times in his career that DeSean Jackson has been that guy, especially returning punts. Take a look:
| Games | Punt Returns | Kick Returns | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Age | Tm | Pos | No. | G | GS | Ret | Yds | TD | Lng | Y/R | Rt | Yds | TD | Lng | Y/Rt | APYd |
| 2008 | 22 | PHI | WR | 10 | 16 | 15 | 50 | 440 | 1 | 68 | 8.8 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 12.0 | 1460 |
| 2009* | 23 | PHI | WR | 10 | 15 | 15 | 29 | 441 | 2 | 85 | 15.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1734 |
| 2010* | 24 | PHI | WR | 10 | 14 | 14 | 20 | 231 | 1 | 65 | 11.6 | 1391 | |||||
| 2011 | 25 | PHI | WR | 10 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 114 | 0 | 51 | 6.7 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 7.0 | 1123 |
| 2012 | 26 | PHI | WR | 10 | 11 | 11 | 1 | -3 | 0 | -3 | -3.0 | 690 | |||||
| 2013* | 27 | PHI | WR | 10 | 16 | 16 | 14 | 71 | 0 | 32 | 5.1 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10.0 | 1415 |
| 2014 | 28 | WAS | te/WR | 11 | 15 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1176 | |||||
| 2015 | 29 | WAS | WR | 11 | 10 | 9 | 2 | -5 | 0 | 2 | -2.5 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 8.0 | 531 |
| Career | 127 | 123 | 134 | 1289 | 4 | 85 | 9.6 | 5 | 37 | 0 | 12 | 7.4 | 10525 | ||||
| 6 yrs | PHI | 87 | 86 | 131 | 1294 | 4 | 85 | 9.9 | 4 | 29 | 0 | 12 | 7.3 | 7813 | |||
| 3 yrs | WAS | 40 | 37 | 3 | -5 | 0 | 2 | -1.7 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 8.0 | 2712 |
Just because he didn’t do it in Washington doesn’t mean he can’t any longer. As we noted earlier, Jackson is still quite fast. A returner is a need for the Bucs, and Jackson can be that guy if called upon.