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There is a thing called addition by subtraction.

That is what the Philadelphia Eagles did Friday. By flat out releasing DeSean Jackson, they added a greater probability that they will have a harmonious, drama-free locker room this season. They added the assurance that Jackson will not create a distraction. That he will not pout or sulk or hold out over a contract that was set to pay him $10.5 million in 2014 and make him the fifth-highest-paid receiver in the National Football League but apparently wasn't good enough for him.

Addition by subtraction -- that's how little Chip Kelly thought of 27-year-old Jackson.

And I don't necessarily blame him.

Jackson is a talented football player. He is wickedly fast. He is impossible to defend on the outside in single coverage. Throw him the ball, and he will go get it. Jackson has proved to be a threat to score whenever and however he touches the football. When he wants to.

That's the rub. When Jackson is good, he is game-changing good. When he is bad, he is chemistry-killing bad. You don't get one without the other.

Even though this is Kelly's second season as the Eagles' head coach, it is his first real opportunity to retool the Philadelphia roster he inherited from Andy Reid. Kelly has a season under his belt. He had an opportunity to evaluate firsthand every player on the roster. He became intimately aware of every player's strengths and weaknesses, his work habits, his dedication, his attitude, his practice tendencies, his commitment to good nutrition and sleep habits.

Kelly now can make informed decisions on how a player fits, or doesn't fit, into his program, into his system and into his plans.

That is why the Eagles gave Riley Cooper a five-year, $25 million contract before Cooper hit free agency last month. Kelly liked Cooper's production. He liked his physicality. He liked that Cooper valued blocking. And he liked the accountability Cooper showed after he was caught on video using a racial slur at a Kenny Chesney concert last summer.

Cooper fit. Jackson did not.

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