I got a question from a writer friend of mine via email, he's written covering the New York Jets before for various internet publications. He asked me about Kareem Jackson. I thought maybe he heard the same thing we'd all heard about a month ago that the Jets are really high on Kareem for their pick at #29. He hadn't, he was just curious. I'd looked at Kareem before. He seemed physically to have all of the tools and ability, a physical guy, but he allowed some catches that I didn't think he should have. Well I watched two quick games in about 15 minutes to answer my friend's question. What I saw induced me to watch 3 more games to make sure. You know how many catches he allowed in the Florida, Auburn, Ole Miss, Virginia Tech and Texas games put together? Five. That's it. Five catches. He had a mistake in the Auburn game. The QB looked to Arenas' side of the field at the start of the play and eventually came back to Kareem's side. The WR managed to get open vertically off a double move, having pulled Kareem in a little bit faking the short route, victimizing Kareem's aggressiveness in coverage. In the five game sample I saw, this was the only time I saw that happen. In the Florida game, I can't even fault him for the one catch he allowed. It was 3rd & 7 and he squeezed Riley Cooper's 10 yard out so well that Riley had to come back a full 5 yards in order to open any kind of window whatsoever for Tebow to get the ball in, and the result was a catch about 2-3 yards shy of the first down. In the Ole Miss game, again it's hard to fault the man when he's painted onto Shay Hodge on a medium slant like he's Shay's latest tattoo, he perfectly reaches his backside arm around to the front of Shay to knock the ball down and the ball just barely squeezes through, and Shay makes a fantastic catch. If every catch has to look like that, sign me up. In the Virginia Tech game? No catches. None. Just take Kareem's side of the field out of the playbook, it doesn't exist anymore. In the Texas game, the National Championship? MAYBE two catches, depending on how you tally it. One was a zone, Kareem drew Jordan Shipley at the start of the play from a tight position off the snap, he handed him off to Rolando McClain as Shipley exited the zone and doubled back to pick up a running back who was entering his zone, he actually had good position, timing and burst to the football, very fluid on the hand-off and zone pickup, and Gilbert threw the ball low and outside to where the RB had to make a heck of a catch (that was reviewed and upheld) in order to hold onto the ball. I GUESS that's on Jackson I just don't know what he was supposed to do differently, seemed like perfect zone coverage to me when you run a zone you know that there will be spots between the zones and if you can get the ball there the corners can't do much about it. The other was definitely on Jackson to Shipley, and again, he was on Jordan like white on rice, physically challenged the catch, the ball came in high and Shipley made a great catch. It's not that teams didn't try. It's that the coverage was THAT good. Quarterbacks looked his direction, and then just had to look away because he was painted on the players. He was tested deep, he was tested on slants, he was tested on double moves...he was on it for all of them. And every time the camera panned out while the ball was thrown to someone else, he was tucked into the hip pocket of every receiver he had man coverage on. In terms of physicality in tackling and taking on blocks, this guy is another Vontae Davis. No doubt about that whatsoever. In terms of physicality in coverage, he's gorgeous. The tightest, most physical coverage I've seen among any draft prospect this year. I won't even go into a full review of his skill set, I'll save that for Universal Draft. What I will say is if this guy is not the best pro cornerback in this draft, then this cornerback draft is one for the ages. First round written all over him. I would love to see how he tests and measures. He looks STRONG in the upper body. Very solid build like Vontae. I wonder about his deep speed but honestly, you can beat Darrelle Revis and Nnamdi Asomugha deep with a Ted Ginn type guy if they never manage to get their hands on them. I saw Kareem tested with guys that have speed like Dyrell Roberts (4.42 according to NFL Draft Scout) and John Chiles (4.45). They weren't open in the slightest on the deep vertical.
I completely agree. He's so damn good and so damn underrated. I talked about him in the Draft Guru thread in the Club that DOLFANMIKE started. He's never talked about it seems but he just does so well. He's my one or two cornerback in the draft. Right up there with Haden IMO.
From ESPN Kareem Jackson, CB, Alabama He has been climbing draft boards due to his incredible man coverage skills. The 5-foot-11, 195-pounder always keeps his feet underneath him and has great balance, and scouts love his anticipation skills, which were on display in Week 6 versus Mississippi. In the beginning of the fourth quarter, Jevan Snead dropped back to pass and tried to complete a slant to WR Shay Hodge, but Jackson stepped in front and intercepted the pass at the 5-yard line. Then Jackson showed great short-area burst and returned it 79 yards; he eventually was dragged down at the Rebels' 16-yard line. Jackson also has an uncanny ability to mirror receivers in coverage, and if he runs the 40 in less than 4.5 seconds at the combine, he will solidify himself as a first-round pick.
Uncanny ability to mirror receivers is exactly how I would describe it. I point to his eyes. He sees on the run and reacts instantaneously. He reads leverage, small cues, and anticipates the receiver. He has the short area quickness to recover lost position on a move within a second of having lost it.
Ck, as a broader matter, has the Sabantator's presence in Alabama produced better quality defensive backs? Ones that are more NFL ready than typical College Db's?
I think Saban tends to produce DBs that outperform their physical ability. Whether that makes them overrated or underrated depends on how the market views them. For instance, I felt like he produced an overrated player a year ago in Rashad Johnson, because I don't consider Rashad to have real NFL physical ability and yet he produced like mad and so a number of people valued him highly under the "he's just a football player" school of thought. Corey Webster has been sort of up and down in New York, and Travis Daniels definitely outperformed his physical ability but probably underperformed his 4th round draft status because of his only having basically one good year. Mark Roman is still hanging around after all these years, obviously he's had something that keeps him in the league. Renaldo Hill was a Saban player at Michigan State and he has definitely outperformed his 7th round draft status. What I will say is that Nick Saban does not generally seem to get DBs in his program that have genuine NFL athletic ability. He recruits the guys he does recruit because he sees something else in them that he can work with and he gets them to outperform. Javier Arenas looks like another in a string of players like that. Kareem Jackson and Corey Webster seem to be the exceptions. I think they do have genuine NFL ability, and if Saban were to return to the NFL this year I believe he would try and pull Kareem Jackson in just like he tried unsuccessfully to pull Corey Webster in with the Dolphins in 2005.
Excellent, I had an eye on S Justin Woodall as a late rd safety pick but if his measurables aren't they then he probably won't be on our board.
I will say this about Javier Arenas...he can definitely contribute in a secondary in some way, though definitely not a starter, and a guy on FH brought the point up and I absolutely agree with him, he is one of the most fearless punt returners I've ever seen. He makes fantastic decisions with the ball in the air on punt returns. If it's returnable, he returns it, and he'll get hammered and not only won't fumble, but he'll make the guy miss. The down side is that he doesn't have enough speed to take it to the house. He's another Wes Welker or Davone Bess type punt return guy.
You guys keep talking about my GM league targets with the 38th pick and NONE of them will make it to me! Seriously though he reminds me of Surtain, from what I saw.
Aaaaand I think we have the Combine I was waiting for before I start shouting Kareem Jackson's name from the mountain tops as #1 CB in the draft.
