Touchdown Wire’s top sleepers in the 2020 NFL Draft

You know the names at the top. Joe Burrow. Tua Tagovailoa. But the NFL Draft has seven rounds. Who are the top sleepers for the 2020 Draft?

Dane Jackson, CB, Pittsburgh

(Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

Attending the Senior Bowl has been something I’ve done for each of the past five years. The week of practices down in Mobile, Alabama is the official kickoff to draft season, and as Jim Nagy, the Executive Director of the Senior Bowl, likes to tweet: #TheDraftStartsInMobile.

Every year the process for me is the same. I set up shop in the north end zone, giving me a bird’s eye view of the practice unfolding below me, and something of a window into the mind of the quarterbacks as they go through each drill. Of course, you try to watch everything, but there is a lot to keep track of. This year, I was watching the quarterbacks throw during a one-on-one session between the receivers and the cornerbacks when a defender broke up a pass at the catch point and was pretty vocal about it after the play. Turning to the other media members near me I asked who the defender was.

“Dane Jackson, from Pittsburgh” was the response give in chorus.

A notation was made in my notebook, and over the following weeks and months I started to watch more of him on film. You see almost everything you want in a cornerback, starting at the line of scrimmage. Jackson is a solid, talented press cornerback who can end routes at the line before they begin. But beyond that, his ability to break on throws and disrupt at the catch point is among some of the best in this class:

Jackson’s entire week was like this down in Mobile, and it backs up moments like this on film (he is at the top of the screen here):

Jackson never loses track of his receiver, fights at the catch point, and creates the turnover opportunity.

Here he is again fighting through the route and to the catch point, preventing a completion in the vertical passing game:

What likely pushes Jackson down draft boards is his size and athletic testing. Jackson weighted in at 187 pounds at the Combine, and life as a press coverage corner playing under 190 pounds is a tough way to make a living. Bigger, more physical wide receivers will have a distinct advantage against him. Furthermore, if Jackson lost weight to test well out in Indianapolis, he did not fulfill the other end of the bargain. Jackson ran just a 4.57 40-yard dash, and his three-cone drill of 7.07 seconds placed him in the 38th percentile of cornerbacks.

On film, however, he checks the boxes you want to see checked from a press cornerback. Teams that rely on that style of play might still love what they see.

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