William Jackson’s upside isn’t a secret to fans of the Cincinnati Bengals.
But last year was a down season for the talented former first-round pick as he and the unit as a whole struggled in Lou Anarumo’s approach.
Still, some flashes of elite play from WJ3 popped up consistently in one area — man coverage.
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar: singled out WJ3 as one of the best man-coverage players in the NFL alongside the likes of Jason McCourty, Marcus Peters and others:
“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.”
Jackson enters a critical year in his career this season as he’ll play out the final year of his contract. Whether the rest of his game evens out and he realizes his potential could be the difference between a massive payday or a tough trip to free agency.
Overall, Jackson only let up 39 catches on 67 targets with three scores, though his PFF grade checked in at 53.6.
Ideally, this developing Bengals scheme will better use him to his strengths in 2020, especially after all the big additions at all three levels of the defense.
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