ANALYSIS/OPINION:
At least we have “DeSean Jackson — Home Team.”
We’ve got Kayla and Gayle and the exotic cars and the bottles in the club and the music studio.
What we don’t have for the next few weeks is DeSean Jackson.
Jackson, who missed some of the Washington Redskins’ voluntary offseason workouts to film his reality show, and then much of training camp with a shoulder injury, may not step onto the field again to actually play a game until Oct. 11 or Oct. 18, whenever he recovers from the hamstring he pulled early in Sunday’s 17-10 season-opening loss to the Miami Dolphins.
He was hurt on a pass down the right sideline that Kirk Cousins appeared to overthrow. But on Monday, Redskins coach Jay Gruden declared Cousins’ throw “great” — as the coach and others at Redskins Park who backed Cousins circle the wagons to protect the decision to make it “Kirk’s team” following a very ordinary, two-interception performance that resulted in just 10 points.
Now, Cousins will have to find a way to score more — and to produce more than 196 yards on 31 pass attempts — when he faces the St. Louis Rams, who are coming off an impressive win over the defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks, on Sunday at FedEx Field. He’ll have to do that without Jackson, his most dangerous offensive weapon, who caught 56 passes for 1,169 yards and averaged nearly 21 yards a catch last season.
“He’s one of our stars,” Gruden told reporters Monday. “You hate to lose a star, especially [one] with his speed. We feel good about the receivers that take his place, but nobody can substitute him for that burning speed that gets downfield and scares safeties and corners to death [and] backs people up.”
Of course, nothing is as simple as a hamstring injury at Redskins Park. No other receiver would have to answer the question about whether or not the missed time from filming a reality show contributed to the injury.
“I don’t know if it had a lot to do with him missing [training camp],” Gruden said. “It could very well have, but we don’t know that. You’d like to have guys all throughout training camp, but the shoulder limited him. But, he was still able to do a lot of running in that time, so I don’t think it really did.”
When Jackson missed OTAs in June while taking in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals and hosting a release party for a rapper on his record label — all part of his reality show — Jackson told reporters to relax. He would be fine.
“I had things I had to do,” Jackson told reporters. “I was obligated to do things back home in California. I’m here now, I’m happy to be here with my teammates, and they’ve been putting in some great work. I’m trying to catch up and get back in the swing of things. I just had things I had to handle.
“My head coach, my teammates, the people in this building knew about my whereabouts,” Jackson said. “As far as critics or anybody else, I don’t play for them and I don’t worry about them. I had things to do and I had things that were important in my life.”
We know where Jackson is now — hurt.
Jackson told everyone this summer during training camp that when it came time to play, he would be there. “You won’t have to worry about me at all,” he told reporters in training camp, before he failed to play one down of preseason football. “I’ll be the same person I’ve always been: making plays and being the guy that brings the energy to this team.”
Fair or not, when you are injured like Jackson was before the Dolphins’ fans got a chance to even get in their seats Sunday at FedEx Field, those words come back to haunt you.
So, Cousins has to move forward — and hope to score more than 10 points in a game — from a group of unproven and unspectacular wide receivers to replace Jackson.
At least he won’t have Kai Forbath to hold him back.
The Redskins cut the kicker on Monday after making a 45-yard field goal, but missing one from 46 yards, a day before. Forbath was the most accurate field goal kicker in Redskins history, but he often came up short in distance on kickoffs. He had just one touchdown on three kickoffs in Sunday’s loss.
Of course, the Redskins knew all this before they started the season. It appeared to become important after a loss.
Gruden dismissed the notion that Forbath was a “scapegoat” for the loss.
“That’s funny,” Gruden said. “We’re not making Kai a scapegoat. That’s insane.”
They don’t need a scapegoat, anyway.
“It’s a big loss,” Gruden said, describing the impact of Jackson’s injury, circling the wagons for what’s coming in the weeks ahead.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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