NY Giants: An in-depth breakdown of Josh Jackson

The NY Giants and the Green Bay Packers made a trade Tuesday, swapping a pair of cornerbacks who both came out of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Josh Jackson, a cornerback who was selected in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers, hasn’t quite lived up to expectations since arriving to the league.

After the NY Giants acquired Jackson in a trade Tuesday, the hope is that a change of scenery may do the young defensive back well.

Giants defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham, could have what it takes to unlock some of the talent that Jackson flashed during his time at Iowa. After all, Graham helped propel the team’s defense into a borderline top 10 unit last season.

To get a better understanding of what the NY Giants are getting with Jackson, here is some insight from someone who watched the Packers during Jackson’s tenure:

Paul Bretl of Dairyland Express broke down what seemed to hold Jackson back in Green Bay during an email exchange with GMen HQ, and discussed why it was time for the Packers to ultimately let him go.

Coming out of college, Jackson put the football world on notice with a strong performance in 2017. In 13 games, he tallied 48 total tackles, 26 passes defended and pulled down a whopping eight interceptions. To boot, he brought two of those picks all the way back to the house for touchdowns.

In his rookie season, however, things weren’t as smooth.

Jackson started 10 games for the Packers in 2018 and had some first-year struggles, which isn’t necessarily something to be extremely alarmed about. Playing cornerback in the NFL is surely difficult, and it takes time for players to adjust, even for some of the most talented collegiate prospects.

The issue arose, however, when Jackson did not improve from those rookie shortcomings, according to Bretl.

“To put it simply, he just never developed,” Bretl said. “The same issues that plagued him as a rookie are still issues today. The Green Bay Packers gave him opportunities at safety during practice, they tried him in the slot, but nothing seemed to help, unfortunately.”

Bretl did add that an injury in training camp prior to the start of Jackson’s second season in the pros could have played a big part in his struggles.

“Jackson’s sophomore season got off to a bad start with an injury early on in training camp that kept him sidelined for the summer,” Bretl said. “As we all know, that missed practice time for a young player can really stifle their development. The result was Jackson falling down the depth chart and he never really recovered.”

Something interesting about Jackson is that on top of his production at Iowa, he posted some really intriguing numbers at the NFL Combine.

Jackson pushed out 18 reps on the bench press, had a vertical jump of 38 inches, a broad jump of 123 inches and had a 3-cone drill time of 6.86. He also had a 4.03 20-yard shuttle time.

“Overall he posted an elite 9.27 out of 10 on the RAS table, testing very well in just about every event, except for the 40-yard dash where he ran a 4.56,” Bretl said. “And ultimately, I think it’s his speed — or lack thereof — that has been the biggest contributor to those issues that I alluded to above.”

At the end of the day, Jackson’s time in Green Bay had run its course, and acquiring Yiadom gives the Packers another viable option to compete with Kevin King, Eric Stokes and others for the boundary cornerback spot opposite Jaire Alexander.

Although his career in Green Bay didn’t quite live up to the hype, Bretl isn’t ready to say Jackson is a lost cause.

“We saw the talent he had at Iowa, so I’m not willing to write him off just yet,” Bretl said. “With that said, it was time for the Green Bay Packers to move on from him.”

In the right scheme, which could be New York’s, Jackson can potentially tap back into the skill set that made him a second-round pick coming out of college.

Last season, Graham had the Giants in good shape on the defensive side of the ball. All kinds of players from first-round picks like Leonard Williams, to seventh-round picks like Isaac Yiadom, played prominent roles. It appears, given it has only been one year, Graham knows how to get the best out of his guys.

If things work out the right way, Jackson’s upside could hit and fans of the Giants may look back on this deal as a great one that proved to have substantial value.