Hey, all. Figured I might consolidate updates, in case they get a little more frequent in the coming week(s). Big news today: Eddie Jackson extended four years for $58.4 million. Just under $15 million a year, highest paid safety in the league. $33 million guaranteed. Frankly, I thought this past season would've dragged his value down. He clearly wasn't the presence he was last year - I think that was due to scheme, but it's the same discussion nonetheless. How effective will he be for this team? A guy getting paid that money should consistently perform the way he did last year. Pagano needs to re-assess the way he used these safeties, because the results of this past season under that kind of money is going to receive a much different reaction. I thought Jackson was a misguided pick, at the time. I was wrong. The guy has an insane ability to play the centerfield free safety role. He needs to be given the ability to do that again, and make plays on the ball the way we've seen him do. Because then he is definitely worth that money.
Jackson actually performed really well this season. Next Gen stats had him as the league leader in completion percentage over expectation and completed air yards over expectation per target. The issue was teams stayed away from him a lot more this season.
That and he had to compensate for Dix being frequently out of place and/or taking bad angles on plays.
This is excellent. Tons of people comparing him to Ed Reed and we have him locked up through his prime. Tip the cap to Ryan Pace. Now cut Leonard Floyd and use that money on an edge rusher who can help when Khalil Mack is doubled and tripled and the joker edge (Floyd). I mentioned Bud Dupree on another thread. The Steelers are in cap hell going into 2020 with not-ideal wiggle room (5.5 mil in cap space and their cut situation is ugly from OTC and Sportrac--tons of dead money if they cut guys), and this kid obviously can handle himself because when TJ Watt got tripled (still getting 14.5 sacks in 2019), Dupree racked up 11.5 sacks, tackles for loss, and was what Floyd was drafted to be--be the athletic joker edge of a 3-4 while Mack is the viper. I look at the deals the Packers gave Z'Darius smith and Preston Smith a year ago for context, and this cat at the same amount as Floyd is getting will produce far better. Dupree would be my #1 target in FA. Other notable edges "available" (before franchise tag) are Shaq Barrett, Bruce Irvin, Dante Fowler, AJ Klien, Ziggy Ansah, and Jadaveon Clowney. I don't need to add anything to ^. This is spot on and meatballs who think he 'regressed' don't watch the damn game outside of being a casual fan looking at a stat sheet. Eddie Jackson halved a ton of teams offenses' fields. We talk about the takeaways not being there in 2019 the way they were in 2018. Going back and watching a lot of tape, teams avoided his half of the field deep. Need a 5 tech and an edge, but Ejax will be the stat sheet stuffer again when the bears get a competent joker edge.
Bull fucking shit. Considering how often the Bears played single high and Jackson wasn't the single, I can only assume your talking splitting the field horizontally..... Jackson didn't regress per se, he was just played out of position way too often and it negatively hit his effectiveness. Possibly the aggressive streak in his game that I tend to like got him box duties over Dix, we'd have to ask Pagano, but point is the scheme that was run this year did not play to Jackson's strengths at all. He got torched more times than another other season, certainly more times than Dix. And a lot of those torchings were pressing to try and jump a route cos he was lined up deeper with a thought to actually make a pick. I'm glad they retained him cos of the obvious talent, im not glad of what this does to the cap structure and im a little concerned how these numbers pertain to getting value for money down the line. They better start using him correctly starting with keeping his ass out the box and letting someone else do the blitzing. If not this could look like a horrible contract in 2 years time.
