Has Eddie Jackson improved his tackling with Chicago Bears?

Eddie Jackson appears to be back to his Eddie Jackson ways, and the Chicago Bears could not be happier. Fans have obviously noticed that he is back to his ball-hawking ways, but the feel has been that he is more aggressive as a tackler as well.

That is not the case, though. According to PFF, he has six missed tackles this season. His missed tackle rate is 16.2%, which is above his career mark of 15%. Last season, when fans wanted to cut him, he had a missed tackle rate of 11.3%.

Some fans will claim that is because he is more active in the run game, but that is not true, either. He has a 1.6% run stop rate, which is down from 2.4% last season.

So, Eddie Jackson is the same old bad tackler, and yet no one cares. That is because it was never his strength and never will be.

The difference is that the Chicago Bears are just giving him fewer chances to miss tackles in the run game. They are playing him as a deep safety on 71% of their defensive snaps.

His career high is 72% as a deep safety, and of course, that was the 2018 season. In 2020, and 2021 he was the deep safety on 47% and 41% respectively.

They are taking him out of the box 30% more often this season, and that is why he is succeeding.

Last season so many fans could not grasp why some analysts said that missed tackles by Jackson were not really the issue. However, this season is playing out that hypothesis perfectly.

The issue was never missed tackles for Jackson, it was usage. He was being asked to do something he was not good at with Chuck Pagano and Sean Desai. Of course, he was struggling. When it comes to Alan Williams and Vic Fangio, they are playing to their strength and minimizing their weakness.

He has been the same player the entire time, but the coaches that put him in a position to succeed are seeing the benefits, and the ones who do not have the fans thinking that he is a bust. Jackson is a great example of how important it is to put your players in a position to have success.