Last season, under coach Ron Rivera and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, the Washington Football Team ranked third overall in Football Outsiders’ Defensive DVOA metric, second only to the Steelers in the pass. Cornerbacks Kendall Fuller, Ronald Darby, Fabian Moreau and Jimmy Moreland allowed a total of nine touchdowns and seven interceptions, and with Darby going to the Broncos in a $ 30 million deal for three years, it was time for reinforcements.
Instead of a medium reinforcement, the football team agreed to the terms of the best cornerback in the free agency class of 2021 and one of the top five male coverage cornerbacks in the NFL. Former Bengals defender William Jackson will become the football team’s newest cornerback when the league year ends at 4 pm ET, and he may be the only guy to take Washington’s defense from 2nd. for 1st place. Ian Rapoport of NFL NetworkWashington takes Jackson in a three-year deal, $ 42 million, with $ 26 million guaranteed. This is CB2 money for a CB1, which is where the A + note comes in.
Last season, in a Bengals defense that did not help anyone schematically, Jackson allowed 36 receptions on 69 targets for 537 yards, 169 yards after receiving, three touchdowns, an interception and an opponent’s passer rating of 86 , 4. But when Jackson is used in the way that best shows his skill set, he is a force to be reckoned with.
Last May, I ranked Jackson as the ninth best NFL cornerback in men’s coverage, and here’s what I wrote about him at that time:
It didn’t quite work out for Cincinnati’s defense in 2019, but Jackson was a rare highlight in the positive sense. Although he struggled with injuries in the second half of the season, a notable cornerback who was adversely affected at times by some puzzled “help” looks, Jackson seemed more comfortable when he could just erase his target on his own. Last season, Jackson allowed a touchdown on man coverage (which the Bengals used in only 33% of their snaps), but other than that, he gave up just 10 receptions on 28 targets for 159 yards and a positive play rate of 32 , 1% – good for fourth best in the league.
Well, at least Jackson was strong in that regard in 2020, although Cincinnati coverage was still a lot of sad trombone, as it usually has been under defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. Unless you believe that going from 29th in pass defense DVOA in 2019 to 27th in 2020 is something very important, which I don’t believe.
In any case, Jackson was shot 40 times in 227 man-coverage snaps in 2020, allowing only 15 receptions for 187 yards and a positive play rate of 32.5%, which came in fourth among the cornerbacks with at least 25 targets in man coverage. Consistent? Admirably, in a position where you can quickly find yourself on the dark side very quickly. Jackson is also a pretty decent cornerback – he allowed 16 hits on 27 targets for 292 yards, two touchdowns, an interception and a positive 44.4% play rate.
Jackson is not really a “bail and trail” limit cornerback in the traditional sense – he is more of the guy you want pressed against your receiver and following the route to the end. Much better in man and combination than point drop zone. If you throw it out of cover, you could end up with things like this 50-yard completion from Deshaun Watson to Brandin Cooks against the Texans in Week 16.
(No, I’m not sure what the security on Jackson’s side was doing here either.)
Here, from the same game, is how you want Jackson to operate: matching the receiver Chad Hansen step by step from the beginning of the route, and almost arriving with the pick when he hurls for the ball.
It is not easy to find good cornerbacks, and even more difficult to find cornerbacks that have the consistency of Jackson year after year. He will be paid very well just for that reason, and don’t be surprised if the football team – which played male coverage in just 24% of its defensive moves last season, but allowed an EPA per game of -0.26, the third better in the league – no longer benefits from Cover-0, Cover-1 and 2-Man in the 2021 season and beyond.