The Eagles released DeSean Jackson yesterday, a surprising move that kicked their 27-year-old No. 1 wideout to the curb without compensation. How will it affect their offense? Well, it might not be as much of a disaster as you'd first think.

There are plenty of stories around about why the Eagles made this move, but this philly.com story indicates it was as simple as Chip Kelly not wanting him on the team anymore. The supposed gang connections are all old, well-known stories that the Eagles and other teams have been aware of; it doesn't sound like anything new happened on that front.

I wonder if the breaking point came after the Eagles lost to the Saints in the playoffs. Shortly after that, Jackson was quoted indicating he deserved a new contract -- this just one year after signing a big-money, multi-year deal. That might have been the moment Kelly decided he didn't want to deal with Jackson any more.

But what's interesting is that Jackson last season was a lot better with Michael Vick in the lineup, and fairly ordinary with Nick Foles in the lineup.

Look at Jackson in the five games that Vick quarterbacked most of last season, and the ten games where it was Foles in the lineup. (The 16th game was a combination that included Matt Barkley.) The TD numbers were the same, but he was much more of a go-to guy with Vick.

DJax with Vick (5 games)
Yards per game: 105
TDs: 3 (.60 per game)
100-yard performances: 3 (60 percent of the time)

DJax with Foles (10 games)
Yards per game: 74
TDs: 6 (.60 per game)
100-yard performances: 2 (20 percent of the time)

Jackson had two big games with Foles in the lineup: 150 yards and a touchdown against Oakland, 195 yards and a touchdown against Minnesota. His other eight games with Foles: 64, 21, 80, 82, 36, 59, 29 and 28 yards. In the playoff loss he caught 3 balls for 53 yards.

Jackson is a dangerous deep threat whose talent and downfield potential helped Foles, but he wasn't a focal point of the passing game for most of the season. Philadelphia will have Jeremy Maclin back from injury, and Zach Ertz is poised to take a step up in year two. Foles and the offense should get along just fine without him. Gang innuendo aside, the Eagles probably wouldn't have released him if they thought otherwise.

--Andy Richardson