Chicago Bears: Eddie Jackson provides schematic impact
In his rookie debut, Chicago Bears fourth round pick Eddie Jackson showed what he brings on paper that the Bears have not had
In 2016, the Bears safeties were a mess. Adrian Amos was the staple starter, and he is a bench player in 2017. Amos is not a bad option, and in the box, making plays down hill, Amos excelled at times. However, he is not going to provide deep half coverage at an NFL caliber level.
Unfortunately, the team had no one to match with Amos who could provide over the top help. Harold Jones-Quartey provided a similar skill set to Amos which was an issue. Deon Bush got some chances but he was far too raw to be trusted with the deep balls.
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Now, in 2017 that issue may be resolved. On nearly every play Jackson was either playing cover-one deep or the deep half on a cover-two. The Falcons respected it. A lot of people can give credit to the Bears front seven for keeping this offense in check, and while they did, they also were not looking to test this team deep.
On the one big deep attempt of the game, an 88-yard bomb to Austin Hooper, Jackson just so happened to be in the box.
Aside from that pass the deep ball was being held in check and Jackson had a lot to do with it. This will help the defense as a whole, as they shrink the field and contain quarterbacks into tight spaces. While Jackson did not make an impact play in this game, his impact is already being felt schematically.