Eagles you told Philly.com you'd rather the team keep over DeSean Jackson

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With the Philadelphia Eagles’ offseason already a week old, various media outlets are running through the tried and true “Stay or Go” exercise. We did that for the club’s 11 impending free agents, but it seems a little silly to do for the entire roster and coaching staff since a large percentage are definitely returning.

Philly.com put a bit of a different spin on Stay or Go this year though by letting you, the reader, decide who should be back—and heavens, did you ever disappoint. Look no further than DeSean Jackson’s 57.8-percent approval rating, which was good for 37th out of the 61 players, coaches and front office members who were part of the polling

Among the players Eagles fans would rather keep over a two-time Pro Bowler were three wide receivers: Riley Cooper, Jeremy Maclin and even Jason Avant. Never mind Jackson is coming off of a career year in which he set personal bests in receptions (82) and yards (1,332) while coming up just 77 yards shy of setting the franchise’s single-season mark for receiving yards in a season.

Hell, Jackson only narrowly beat out Swoop, the damn mascot.

Amazingly enough, at 93.7 percent, Cooper was the receiver fans want the team to keep the most despite his season totals (47 REC, 835 YDS, 8 TD) falling well short of anything Jackson or Maclin have ever done. Riley Cooper, the same guy who posted a quarter of his 2013 production against the Oakland Raiders, averaged 3.6 receptions for 49.7 yards and 0.3 touchdowns over the final seven games of the season, and oh yeah, got caught using a racial slur just this past summer.

More Eagles people want more than Jackson: Jon Dorenbos, the long snapper; Chris Polk, the third-string running back; Matt Barkley, with five turnovers and no touchdown drives; and backup offensive lineman Dennis Kelly, who spent the entire year on the inactive list.

Look, I get Jackson is a polarizing player because of that giant chip on his shoulder, but this would be a lot easier to understand if he weren’t producing or were getting in trouble off the field. Neither of those things are the case. It really makes the fan base look bad when nearly half the folks believe the team would be better off without him.

For more fun and analysis with Philly.com’s Stay or Go results, be sure to check out Jimmy Kempski’s piece, which includes some fantastic MS Paint work. Some of the Top 5 might surprise you… although the bottom 5 most definitely will not.

>> Eagles fans ‘stay or go’ analysis, in MS Paint form [Philly.com]

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