Last season, under head coach Ron Rivera and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, the Washington Football Team ranked third overall in Football Outsiders’ Defensive DVOA metric, and second only to the Steelers against the pass. Cornerbacks Kendall Fuller, Ronald Darby, Fabian Moreau, and Jimmy Moreland allowed a total of nine touchdowns and seven interceptions, and with Darby off to the Broncos on a three-year, $30 million deal, it was time for reinforcements.
Instead of an average reinforcement, the Football Team agreed to terms with the best cornerback in the 2021 free agency class, and one of the five best man coverage cornerbacks in the NFL. Former Bengals defender William Jackson will become the Football Team’s newest cornerback when the league year turns over at 4:00 p.m. ET, and he could be the one guy to take Washington’s defense from No. 2 to No. 1. Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Washington nabs Jackson on a three-year, $42 million deal with $26 million guaranteed. That is CB2 money for a CB1, which is where the A+ grade comes in.
Last season in a Bengals defense that helped nobody from a schematic standpoint, Jackson allowed 36 receptions on 69 targets for 537 yards, 169 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 86.4. But when Jackson is utilized in ways that best show his skill set, he’s a force to be reckoned with.
Last May, I ranked Jackson as the NFL’s ninth-best cornerback in man coverage, and here’s what I wrote about him back then:
Not much went right for Cincinnati’s bottom-feeding defense in 2019, but Jackson was a rare standout in a positive sense. Though he struggled with injuries in the second half of the season, An outstanding boundary cornerback who was negatively affected at times by some perplexing safety “help” looks, Jackson seemed more comfortable when he could just erase his target on his own. Last season, Jackson did allow one touchdown in man coverage (which the Bengals used on just 33% of their snaps), but aside from that, he gave up just 10 catches on 28 targets for 159 yards, and a Positive Play Rate of 32.1% — good for fourth-best in the league.
Well, at least Jackson was stalwart in this regard in 2020, though Cincinnati’s coverage was still a whole lot of sad trombone, as it has generally been under defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. Unless you believe that going from 29th in pass defense DVOA in 2019 to 27th in 2020 is a Great Big Thing, which I do not.
In any event, Jackson was targeted 40 times in 227 man coverage snaps in 2020, allowing just 15 receptions for 187 yards, and a Positive Play Rate of 32.5%, which ranked fourth among cornerbacks with at least 25 targets in man coverage. Consistent? Admirably so at a position where you can quickly find yourself on the dark side pretty quickly. Jackson is also a pretty decent zone cornerback — he allowed 16 completions on 27 targets for 292 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and a Positive Play Rate of 44.4%.
Jackson isn’t really a “bail-and-trail” boundary cornerback in the traditional sense — he’s more the guy you want pressed up against his receiver and following the route all the way though. Much better in man and match than spot-drop zone. If you play him off-coverage, you can wind up with things like this 50-yard completion from Deshaun Watson to Brandin Cooks against the Texans in Week 16.
(No, I’m not quite sure what the safety to Jackson’s side was doing here, either).
Here, from the same game, is how you want Jackson to operate: Matching receiver Chad Hansen step-for-step from the start of the route, and nearly coming up with the pick as he breaks off to the ball.
It’s not easy to find great man cornerbacks, and even more difficult to find man cornerbacks who have Jackson’s consistency from year to year. He will be highly paid for that reason alone, and don’t be surprised if the Football Team — who played man coverage on just 24% of their defensive snaps last season, but allowed an EPA per play of -0.26, third-best in the league — doesn’t avail itself of more Cover-0, Cover-1, and 2-Man in the 2021 season and beyond.