2020 sets up to be a huge year for Philadelphia Eagles DT Malik Jackson

Expect a nice year from Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Malik Jackson in 2020. If you’re a fan, you shouldn’t have any reservations about saying so.

Though most of us will never know what this feels like, we can probably all agree on something as fans and members of the media. It absolutely and positively has to suck if you’re one of the injured guys on an NFL team’s roster. Much was expected of Malik Jackson in his first season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2019. Hey, you don’t sign guys to three-year, $30 million deals to play reserve roles.

Week 1 was an emotional one for “Birds” fans. Despite injuring himself on the play, an old Vernon Davis opened the scoring by going 48 yards after treating the turf at Lincoln Financial Field like it was a track at Maryland and after treating Ronald Darby like he was nothing more than a hurdle.

The offense looked stagnant outside of two long bombs to DeSean Jackson. Jim Schwartz’s guys started slow and ended on a low note as the Washington Redskins punched in a final touchdown to make the score respectable when Philly’s defense was supposed to be sealing the deal.

Oh, don’t forget about this. Philly’s $30 million-dollar man injured his foot in that one and missed the remainder of the 2019-2020 season after he was placed on injured reserve on September 10th. Just like that, the dream of seeing the man who had racked up 239 tackles and 32.5 sacks during the first 110 games of his career was over.

As mentioned earlier, being injured sucks for these guys. They, at times, don’t even travel with the team. There are no practices, and if there are they’re off to the side somewhere. There are all of the questions about whether teams should move on. Two very popular phrases that have floated around football circles during the NFL’s 100-year history. One is this. “You can’t lose your position because of injury”. History has taught us that just isn’t true.

The second phrase goes something like this. “Being injured makes one feel like they aren’t even on the team”. That one seems to be a little more accurate. For 15 games in 2020’s regular season, little was said about Jackson, but after the news broke that the Eagles had acquired Javon Hargrave in free agency, the talk is now about how strong Philly’s rotation is at defensive tackle.

There’s no need to worry about whether or not what we saw from Jackson in 2019 was a sign of there being bad days ahead. Prior to that, he hadn’t missed a game in his seven-year career. Expect a bounce-back as 2020 will be huge. Alongside Fletcher Cox and Hargrave, it’s going to be hard for offenses to key in on any one of them.

There should be a few collapsed pockets and stuffed running games as any team with the Eagles on the schedule will have to see a new Malik Jackson, one who feels like he has something to prove. That’s great news if you’re an Eagles fan. It’s awful news if you’re a fan of anyone on the Eagles upcoming schedule. There’s no need to worry if you’re a “Birds” fan. “97” is going to be just fine.