There were plenty of standout performances from the Chicago Bears in their 30-24 Week 7 win over the New England Patriots, but it was linebacker D'Marco Jackson who stood out from the rest.
Jackson was put into an interesting situation with T.J. Edwards being ruled out for the second straight game due to injury. That put Jackson in the starting lineup with Devin Bush at inside linebacker, and that combination actually ended up looking really good for the Bears' defense.
Throughout the last two games in a more elevated role, Jackson has slowly proved himself as a worthy starter in the Bears' defense. His performance against the Patriots, though, really put him on a different level.
D'Marco Jackson thrived as one of the top defenders on the Bears in Week 7
Easily the biggest play of the game came in the second quarter when Jackson was able to pick off Patriots quarterback Drake Maye in the end zone. That play prevented New England from scoring on a drive that was looking like it was going to end in points.
Jackson finished the game with six tackles, one pass deflection, and one interception. Pro Football Focus gave him the highest defender grade: 90.5 overall. He led the Bears in run stops with three and allowed just 28 receiving yards on four receptions.
For the season, Jackson has posted 21 tackles, one pass deflection, and one interception in seven games with six starts.
Bears are seeing the true potential from D'Marco Jackson over the last two weeks
With Edwards out, Jackson is starting to prove that he needs to be getting on the field more often for the Bears. He has been in on 58% of the defensive snaps so far this season.
What is helping Jackson is that he is starting to show great improvement in pass coverage. He has typically been weak in that department, but he has played well in coverage against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 6 and the Patriots in Week 7. While Jackson will still allow receptions, he is not allowing a lot of yards per reception, which is usually the goal for the linebackers.
This might lead to some interesting changes on defense with how they are handling the rotation at linebacker. Jackson should be getting more reps in there, while mixing it in with Edwards and Bush.
There is a chance that the Bears could even go as far as to potentially put Edwards or Bush on the trade block to pick up some picks. Jackson knows defensive coordinator Dennis Allen's scheme well enough from their past experience together to make it work with Jackson playing more snaps.
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The Bears' defense has been a mixed bag of performances, but Jackson has helped made them more consistent over the last few games. There is no reason why Jackson shouldn't be playing more on defense with how good he has been.
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