Washington coach Jay Gruden wanted to act quickly when Philadelphia cut
DeSean Jackson.
“He got released by Philadelphia, and as soon as that happened,
it was, ‘Wow,’ for us,” Gruden said on SiriusXM NFL Radio, via CSNWashington.com. “Because obviously people around here have played against him a couple of times a year. Guys like that don’t come around very often and when they do, you have to do your due diligence, and you have to do whatever it takes to get the guy if you think he’s a fit. And we felt like he was a fit for us. So Bruce Allen [was] all systems go and made a play for him and [it] ended up working out to get him.”
Jackson made his first free agent visit to Washington, and Gruden said the whole organization was committed to persuading Jackson not to make any other visits.
“That was tough,” Gruden said of getting Jackson signed on his visit. “Bruce did some work. [Jackson’s] agent [Joel Segal] and [Allen], they went at it. I’m sure there was some talk about him going to [visit] other teams, [but] Bruce and DeSean’s agent hashed out a deal and DeSean agreed to it.”
Now Gruden needs to hope Jackson will make plenty of plays in Washington’s offense that make everyone say, “Wow.”