The Alshon Jeffery Situation
Alshon may very well make himself an integral part of the Eagles offense in 2020. In fact, he may have a multitude of reasons to make this his best season with the Eagles yet. His NFL future may very well depend on his performance in 2020. PSN’s own Liam Jenkins has been mulling over the whole ordeal, trying to make sense of it:
Regardless of his performance this season, whether in midnight green or another color, the whole situation has been one that the Eagles brass would feel better left behind them. The will-he-or-won’t-he game of cat and mouse that began long before this off-season has not been one of the front office’s brightest moments.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter what Alshon said or did, or didn’t say and didn’t do; there was clearly a rift — however minimal — in the Eagles locker room this season. While we the fans are not at the crux of the matter, it seems from the outside looking in that the situation has not been firmly addressed. Again, Howie’s comments on the matter don’t exactly ease fears.
Obviously, the elephant in the room is Alshon. Alshon’s gotta get healthy. That’s the No. 1 priority for us and for him. He understands. He knows what’s being said about him. He understands that he has a lot to prove and he’s anxious to do that. So he’s not living in a bubble; he understands that.
To me, this doesn’t seem like the speech a GM gives after a resolved conflict. Everything about it screams the problem is still on-going. It is a very subjective paraphrasing, but to me, it reads: Alshon is the elephant in the room and will continue to be until he is healthy and performs to a level that justifies his contract. The other side of the coin in that Alshon has stayed silent on the matter.
Now, this isn’t to kick up dust, but the off-season is a time for teams to develop a definitive plan and work on resolutions for the upcoming season. The ambiguous treatment of Alshon and the veil of secrecy surrounding the situation, in general, has not been well-managed and certainly doesn’t seem fully resolved. Now, a fantastic season from a healthy Jeffery would erase all these concerns. Likely to be on another team in the near future, the receiver has every motivation to play well to secure a well-paying contract elsewhere.
How likely is it that he will want to give his all to a team that saw him as a locker room issue, definitely wanted to trade him, couldn’t find a trade partner because of his performance and lofty salary, then didn’t-actually-want-to-trade-him and welcomed him back with open arms?
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