Jackson's Pick Six

[AZ54]

I've watched this play a few times and the more I see it the more I think it's a brilliant play design.   That's not my main point of this post.  I  think this play shows how well the defense is coming together.  With Mack on board now for a few months there's a consistency to our pass rush and teams are reacting to that, and him.  He's seeing the usual double and sometimes triple teams but teams are also working the quicker passing routes.  That was the Lions scheme in our second matchup to negate our pass rush.  

Now these players and coaches have been together with Mack and are all coming to understand each other.  This includes an improving Roquan Smith in the middle.  With more consistency in execution among the young defenders Fangio dials up this blitz package knowing Jackson has the speed to get to the outside coverage.  You typically expect him to get handed off one of the interior receivers.  Fangio, and I think Jackson, also knows this is likely the hot route Stafford wants to hit.  You can see Jackson hiding among the traffic before he makes his burst to the outside.   

Fangio might not be a fan of blitzing much but when you have this much versatile talent then there are many combinations of blitzes and coverages he can call.  Floyd, Smith, Trevathan, Jackson can all drop into coverage and do it well.  I wasn't the biggest fan of Roquan Smith in the draft but when I saw him blow the coverage on Golladay by reacting a step late to his route I wasn't happy.  Then he ran him down and tackled him some 30 yards later and  I was impressed.  You just don't see that kind of speed often from LBs.  As Smith improves we might be seeing the beginning of a new blitz trend for Lord Fangio.  

On the flip side what Jackson is showing on tape lately is going to make QBs start to focus more on him after the snap.  Reading the safety is common anyway but for how long into the play?  In the video we can see Stafford looking for the replay because he wants to know where Jackson came from and how he missed that read.  These are littles things but they might get a blitzing defender another half step closer to the QB before he recognizes it.  It also will make some QBs start to hesitate a bit on throwing the timing routes.    

I think the best is yet to come on blitzes with this defense.  

 

 

[adam]

 

Jackson is literally a more athletic version of Mike Brown, and if he can improve on his tackling, he would be getting consideration for DPOY, he is playing that good. Mack thinks the same thing:

Here is his PFF scorecard, which has him as the highest rated Safety. PFF is very subjective (had Amos as one of the best Safeties last year), but sometimes they get it right. His 93.2 is second only to Aaron Donald's 95.1.

[AZ54]

That's why he will get paid to stay in Chicago and Amos won't.  

[Stinger226]

The weak spot for the Bears is the underneath quick pass, if we keep taking the ball away this will change.

[madlithuanian]

Just a thing of beauty!  

[Alaskan Grizzly]

Proof positive that whenever you need defensive players you look for them from Alabama.  Or at least the SEC (Smith).

I like the ‘Jackson 5’ tribute on the ChicagoBears.com website (to his 5 career TDs - so far). 

[BearFan2000]

Jackson has turned out to be an absolute steal where we got him.  I agree with Adam as the first comparison that comes to mind is Mike Brown but quicker.  Dude appears to have a very high football IQ and a real nose for the ball.  His picks in both Detroit and against Minny are somewhat reminiscent of Brown's back to back OT pick sixes. He can become the leader in the secondary we've not had in a long time.  With his football IQ it could be like having a coach on the field helping his teammates be in position to make plays.  And he's in just year 2 of his career.  Here's hoping he avoids the injury bug that constantly bit Brown.  

[AZ54]

14 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

Proof positive that whenever you need defensive players you look for them from Alabama.  Or at least the SEC (Smith).

Exactly what Green Bay said before trading Clinton-Dix.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

2 hours ago, AZ54 said:

Exactly what Green Bay said before trading Clinton-Dix.

And he's on a team with a 6-5 record in contention for a playoff spot versus his previous team...which may not. 

Of the current NFL players there are 50 alumni from Alabama, 28 of which are on the defense.  To include players like Jonathan Allen, Mark Barron, Landon Collins, Marcell Dareus, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Dont'a Hightower, Dre Kirkpatrick, CJ Mosely, Reggie Ragland and our own Eddie Jackson.  And of the 'top 10' colleges represented by total numbers of players currently in the NFL, Alabama is near the top (close second to LSU or lead depending on the year).  Of those 10, six are in the SEC. 

 

[jason]

17 hours ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

And he's on a team with a 6-5 record in contention for a playoff spot versus his previous team...which may not. 

Of the current NFL players there are 50 alumni from Alabama, 28 of which are on the defense.  To include players like Jonathan Allen, Mark Barron, Landon Collins, Marcell Dareus, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Dont'a Hightower, Dre Kirkpatrick, CJ Mosely, Reggie Ragland and our own Eddie Jackson.  And of the 'top 10' colleges represented by total numbers of players currently in the NFL, Alabama is near the top (close second to LSU or lead depending on the year).  Of those 10, six are in the SEC. 

 

Preach.

GMs get too cute. The better players generally go to the bigger football schools. Any GM who made a commitment to simply drafting from a set of 10-15 perennially good/great teams would likely be a superstar GM for as long as he wanted a job.

 

[DABEARSDABOMB]

11 hours ago, jason said:

Preach.

GMs get too cute. The better players generally go to the bigger football schools. Any GM who made a commitment to simply drafting from a set of 10-15 perennially good/great teams would likely be a superstar GM for as long as he wanted a job.

 

As an interesting cross-set, outside of Jackson, some of the Bears top defensive players were from smaller schools, most notably Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks.  I don't quite know that your example above is all that stastically significant since a heck of a lot of the players I see listed were 1st round picks. The interesting scenario would be is there a higher percentage of later round picks who go on to become quality players who are drafted from bigger schools vs. smaller schools. Further more, I've been curious how much analytics teams look at over the course of recent draft history to see if certain body types / player attributes project better in later rounds (i.e., are you better to take a guy who looks like a great athlete who hasn't produced vs. a bigger name program guy who had great stats but his combine times weren't that good, etc).  Going beyond that are there certain attributes that statistically are more significant (i.e, CB in a man scheme's shuttle type or something).  

[jason]

20 minutes ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

As an interesting cross-set, outside of Jackson, some of the Bears top defensive players were from smaller schools, most notably Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks.  I don't quite know that your example above is all that stastically significant since a heck of a lot of the players I see listed were 1st round picks. The interesting scenario would be is there a higher percentage of later round picks who go on to become quality players who are drafted from bigger schools vs. smaller schools. Further more, I've been curious how much analytics teams look at over the course of recent draft history to see if certain body types / player attributes project better in later rounds (i.e., are you better to take a guy who looks like a great athlete who hasn't produced vs. a bigger name program guy who had great stats but his combine times weren't that good, etc).  Going beyond that are there certain attributes that statistically are more significant (i.e, CB in a man scheme's shuttle type or something).  

I'm not saying it's impossible to find a stud from Kent State or Tulane. I'm saying the percentage of NFL players from just a certain number of colleges is statistically significant. Look at pretty much every letter on the following link and you'll find considerably more players from the usual suspects.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/college

You can win a bet if you choose a roulette number, but your odds are much better over the long run if you pick a a color.

[BearFan PHX]

10 hours ago, DABEARSDABOMB said:

As an interesting cross-set, outside of Jackson, some of the Bears top defensive players were from smaller schools, most notably Khalil Mack and Akiem Hicks.  I don't quite know that your example above is all that stastically significant since a heck of a lot of the players I see listed were 1st round picks. The interesting scenario would be is there a higher percentage of later round picks who go on to become quality players who are drafted from bigger schools vs. smaller schools. Further more, I've been curious how much analytics teams look at over the course of recent draft history to see if certain body types / player attributes project better in later rounds (i.e., are you better to take a guy who looks like a great athlete who hasn't produced vs. a bigger name program guy who had great stats but his combine times weren't that good, etc).  Going beyond that are there certain attributes that statistically are more significant (i.e, CB in a man scheme's shuttle type or something).  

good logic

[Stinger226]

Pace missed on his first two #1 picks but he has excelled on mid round picks. I think you have to look at his draft classes as a whole and not worry about his rounds. When you look back after Jackson will be having a pro bowl year, you could very well day he would be redrafted as a #1. So my point is, I do not care where the players come from but Pace is finding prime time players in his drafts. Also I think he was influenced  by Fox in his first few drafts.Now he is running on his own.