The Buffalo Bills hosted the Indianapolis Colts in Orchard Park on Saturday, quickly providing rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson with a proper welcome to the NFL.
Just under two minutes into the contest on Indy’s opening offensive drive, CB2 Dane Jackson read Richardson and positioned himself for a pick on an off-balance missed throw to set up the Bills first touchdown of the day.
Buffalo with the early INT!
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The interception came when Bills head coach and defensive coordinator Sean McDermott called a blitz on a second down play that saw defensive back Saran Neal pressure Richardson to throw.
“I felt real good, you know what I mean, I was able to just end with a good play” Jackson said after the game.
The interception was timely for the corner.
While he filled in effectively for CB1 Tre White while he recovered from an ACL injury and across from White for much of last season in the CB2 role, he is in a position battle competing with 2022 first-round pick, Kaiir Elam and sixth-round pick, Christian Benford.
Jackson got the start and only played the first series, leaving the game along with the rest of the starters, at which point Elam and Benford took over, with Benford also running first-team gunner with the punt unit on special teams.
“I feel like it’s the same,” Jackson shared about the competition. “It’s always going to be a competition I mean picking preseason unfortunately it don’t really matter, you know what I mean, so just got to keep stacking you got great competition between UCB and Kai here as well so I know they’re going to keep taking steps so I got to stay on mine as well.”
A seventh-round pick by Buffalo in the 2020 NFL Draft, Jackson has been longtime friends with S Damar Hamlin as they are both from the Pittsburgh area and teammates in college at PITT.
When he caught his interception Hamlin ran all the way over from the sideline to the endzone to celebrate with him. He even filmed Jackson’s locker room interview on his phone behind the press camera postgame.
“One thing about Dane, he’s always going to make a play,” said a smiling Hamlin after the game. “Just today, that was good for me, that kind of loosened me up a little bit just him having that interception so early. I’m always extra, extra happy for Dane.”
As for seeing his teammate and friend return to gameplay for the first time since his January 2nd cardiac arrest, it was meaningful as well.
“It was great to see him back out there.”
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