- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 475,212
- Reaction score
- 45
Let me be the first to say that I love the Detroit Lions selection of Tyleik Williams in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. That said, Williams isn't even my favorite pick from the Detroit Lions draft. In fact, the player that I'm most excited about is safety Dan Jackson from Georgia. He may be a 7th-round pick, but Jackson fits the Lions on so many different levels.
For starters, Jackson is just a good, all-around football player. We know that's exactly what the Lions are looking for when building their roster. They want players who don't just play the game, but they live it and most importantly, they love it. You won't get Jackson saying anything different. At his Pro Day, he said, "I just want them to realize how much I love the game. Sometimes you can tell by watching on film but once you get to know me, you realize I just don't like football, I love it."
It'll be a few weeks before anything is released but I can only imagine what type of conversations Jackson had with Dan Campbell and the rest of the Lions coaching staff during the pre-draft process. One thing they had to discuss was special teams. It's evident that Jackson will earn a role on the Lions special team units. After all, he posted over 500 career snaps on the special teams units for Georgia. Then this past season, he earned a starting role on the Bulldogs defense. With that, he was able to record 64 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and two interceptions last season.
That leaves me to tell everyone that Jackson will have a bigger role than just special teams. Sure, he won't start over Brian Branch or Kerby Joseph in year one, but an expanded role on defense isn't out of the realm of possibility. When watching the film, you'll see that Jackson plays with great urgency and is a real tone setter on the back half of Georgia's defense.
Whether he's playing as a split or single-high safety or playing more as a buzz defender, Jackson gets downhill in a hurry. He's a willing tackler and meets the opposition every chance he gets. There are times when his form tackling goes out the window, and he'll have some misses. However, putting Jackson near the line-of-scrimmage to handle running backs out of the backfield, covering tight ends or blitzing to add some pressure is all likely at the next level.
His feet move quickly and he has the ability to run with pass-catchers. Additionally, he shows good spatial awareness in zone coverage so he does give the Lions flexibility and comparability when running cover 3, quarters coverage or other zone variations they intend to run. One issue that appears to happen on tape with Jackson is that he can get crossed up by quicker receivers but there's also instances where he doesn't locate the football cleanly. That opens up passing windows for an extended period of time. If that happens frequently in year one, it could prevent Jackson from having an expanded role as quickly as I project for him in the NFL.
Overall, getting Jackson with the 230th overall pick feels like cheating for the Lions. They've found success with drafting safeties and it feels like they may have a late-round contributor in all facets of the game. When looking at how the Lions identify the players that best suit them, this selection is a no-brainer. It doesn't appear that Jackson will contribute as early or as often as Branch did for the Lions after the 2023 NFL Draft, but there's definitely a role for him in Detroit.
This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Lions safety Dan Jackson projects to bigger role than 7th-round status
Continue reading...
For starters, Jackson is just a good, all-around football player. We know that's exactly what the Lions are looking for when building their roster. They want players who don't just play the game, but they live it and most importantly, they love it. You won't get Jackson saying anything different. At his Pro Day, he said, "I just want them to realize how much I love the game. Sometimes you can tell by watching on film but once you get to know me, you realize I just don't like football, I love it."
It'll be a few weeks before anything is released but I can only imagine what type of conversations Jackson had with Dan Campbell and the rest of the Lions coaching staff during the pre-draft process. One thing they had to discuss was special teams. It's evident that Jackson will earn a role on the Lions special team units. After all, he posted over 500 career snaps on the special teams units for Georgia. Then this past season, he earned a starting role on the Bulldogs defense. With that, he was able to record 64 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and two interceptions last season.
That leaves me to tell everyone that Jackson will have a bigger role than just special teams. Sure, he won't start over Brian Branch or Kerby Joseph in year one, but an expanded role on defense isn't out of the realm of possibility. When watching the film, you'll see that Jackson plays with great urgency and is a real tone setter on the back half of Georgia's defense.
Whether he's playing as a split or single-high safety or playing more as a buzz defender, Jackson gets downhill in a hurry. He's a willing tackler and meets the opposition every chance he gets. There are times when his form tackling goes out the window, and he'll have some misses. However, putting Jackson near the line-of-scrimmage to handle running backs out of the backfield, covering tight ends or blitzing to add some pressure is all likely at the next level.
His feet move quickly and he has the ability to run with pass-catchers. Additionally, he shows good spatial awareness in zone coverage so he does give the Lions flexibility and comparability when running cover 3, quarters coverage or other zone variations they intend to run. One issue that appears to happen on tape with Jackson is that he can get crossed up by quicker receivers but there's also instances where he doesn't locate the football cleanly. That opens up passing windows for an extended period of time. If that happens frequently in year one, it could prevent Jackson from having an expanded role as quickly as I project for him in the NFL.
Overall, getting Jackson with the 230th overall pick feels like cheating for the Lions. They've found success with drafting safeties and it feels like they may have a late-round contributor in all facets of the game. When looking at how the Lions identify the players that best suit them, this selection is a no-brainer. It doesn't appear that Jackson will contribute as early or as often as Branch did for the Lions after the 2023 NFL Draft, but there's definitely a role for him in Detroit.
This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: Lions safety Dan Jackson projects to bigger role than 7th-round status
Continue reading...
