Surgery is Set for Eagles’ DeSean Jackson

In less than 12 hours, the Eagles went from expecting DeSean Jackson to try to play again after the bye week against the New England Patriots to announcing the speedy receiver would be undergoing core muscle surgery which will likely end his 2019 season.

"After further testing and discussion this morning, it was determined that the best course of action for a full recovery is to proceed with surgery," the team said in a statement ending released just after 4:00.

Doug Pederson started his day doing his weekly Monday morning radio spot with a Philadelphia-area radio station in which the coach claimed that Jackson would likely try again against the Patriots in a couple of weeks after an attempted return against Chicago on Sunday was derailed after just one offensive series.

"Fully expect him to be good in a couple weeks," Pederson said. "He was going to be limited, we knew that going in. Everybody was comfortable with that decision. He gets into the football game and he had a moment there where he said something felt something, and so we took him in for really precautionary reasons.

"And everything, what I heard after the game, checked out good. We'll check him out again this morning. I'll get an update here in a little while. But I fully expect him to be good in a couple of weeks."

By noon, however, things shifted a bit when Pederson met the local media at his Monday press conference.

“He did feel some discomfort when he was in there,” Pederson acknowledged. “So for precautionary measures, we decided to keep him out and evaluate him. We’re gathering some more information on him. Obviously this is our bye week so we’re gonna get all the information and see where we’re at.”

Where we're at now is surgery that was originally recommended back in September when Jackson first aggravated the issue against the Atlanta Falcons.

"Ultimately, DeSean didn’t want to have surgery when it happened," Pederson admitted. “He rehabbed it and got himself in a position to play so I can’t put words in players’ mouths, in doctors’ mouths, that’s not my position.”

Dr. William Myers, the go-to guy for NFL players with core injuries who is located a stone's throw away from the NovaCare Complex at the Navy Yard, will handle the procedure, which has now been diagnosed as a Grade 3 tear.

The typical estimate on such surgery can be as little as four to six weeks but players who rely heavily on their speed like Jackson are on the latter end of that timetable and two different independent surgeons called six weeks optimistic when discussing the issue with 973espn.com.

Jackson, meanwhile, took to Instagram to explain his side of this murky story.

"I put all my passion into this s@#$," Jackson wrote. "... I don't care if anyone ever doubt that."