Packers: Josh Jackson Shows some Progress in Kevin King’s Absence

In Kevin King’s absence, Josh Jackson has held up better than expected at the Green Bay Packers’ cornerback position.

It’s no secret that as a former second-round pick, Green Bay Packers’ cornerback Josh Jackson has not lived up to his draft status through his first two years. And honestly, it hasn’t even been close.

For starters, he hasn’t even been able to earn regular playing time, seeing the field on less than 10 percent of the Packers’ total defensive snaps in 2019. Then when he is in the game, he’s been picked on by opposing quarterbacks, allowing a completion percentage of 69 percent and not coming away with a single interception, which is something he often did at Iowa. Additionally, penalties have been a big issue as well.

This season, however, Jackson put together the best training camp of his career, while an injury to Kevin King the past two weeks has thrust him into a starting role alongside Jaire Alexander. And to his credit, he’s held up fairly well, or at least better than what he has in the past.

In coverage over these past two games, he’s still giving up completions, seven to be exact on only 10 targets, but he’s limiting yards after the catch as well as downfield throws. Those seven completions have gone for only 43 yards or 6.1 yards per catch. Although Jackson is giving up a high completion percentage, those yardage numbers aren’t going to hurt a defense.

But where Jackson has really shined has been against the run. According to Pro Football Focus ($), against Tampa Bay and Houston, Jackson has totaled five stops, which are plays that constitute a ‘failure’ for the offense. He’s also recorded 11 total tackles during those two games as well. Going back to the Atlanta game, it’s becoming a weekly occurrence that we see Jackson making plays at or behind the line of scrimmage.

Now granted, against Tampa Bay, we saw some a few Josh Jackson-esque coverage plays take place. He gave up an easy touchdown in the red zone to Tyler Johnson. And on a deep ball to Scotty Miller, he failed to get his head around and was called for pass interference. He’s been far from flawless, but overall, I’d say he’s held his own much better than anticipated.

For comparison’s sake, here is how Jackson compares to King this season: Jackson has 167 total snaps where he’s recorded 13 tackles, five stops while allowing eight receptions on 12 targets for 49 yards with a touchdown. Meanwhile, in 195 snaps, King as 13 tackles, three stops, has allowed eight receptions on 13 targets for 109 yards with a touchdown.

With that said, let’s be clear, in no way am I advocating that Jackson is better than King or that I’d be fine letting King walk in free agency in favor of Jackson. King is clearly the better player. But what I wanted to show was that in this small-ish sample size, Jackson has been better than what he was during his first two seasons. And yes, I know, given how his first two seasons went that may not be saying much, but it is true.

Hopefully, King will be good to go this Sunday for Minnesota, and hopefully, he will be able to stay healthy for the rest of the season. Although I wanted to shine a little bit of light on Jackson’s performance in King’s absence, this Green Bay Packers’ defense is much better when King is on the field. But to Jackson’s credit, it appears that he has taken some steps in the right direction.