Broncos Film Room: Meet Denver's new Swiss Army Knife in the secondary

The Denver Broncos made their first big splash in free agency by signing do-it-all defensive back, Kareem Jackson.

The former Alabama first-rounder is a nine-year veteran who stood out in a major way against the Denver Broncos in Week 9, with a player-of-the-game type performance.

He’s played both safety and cornerback, is scheme and position versatile and adds a valuable chess piece to Vic Fangio’s defense.

After studying up on Jackosn, here’s what we found.

Who is Kareem Jackson?

Jackson wasn’t easy to study up on, while just watching one player, we had to see how he performed as a nickel cornerback, an outside cornerback, a free safety and a box safety. Last season alone, Jackson played 135 snaps as a deep safety, 117 in the box, 328 in the slot, and 467 snaps out wide.

From how he handled Cole Beasley in the slot, or Rob Gronkowski as a deep safety, to his matchup against T.Y. Hilton, we went back and saw it all.

Before hitting on his versatility, let’s take a step back and start with this, the first thing that stands out when watching Jackson is how physical he is. He is truly devastating downhill, reads the run well and is always around the ball.

He is a phenom against the run and one of the best tackling cornerbacks in the NFL. Last year in Houston, he had as much of an impact as any back-seven defender in stopping the ground game. His stats might be inflated because he was asked to play up close to the line, but Jackson racked up 87 tackles in 2018 with five tackles for a loss.

Denver’s new DB plays without fear, will throw his body around with a reckless abandon, make tough-nosed shoe-string tackles, and do anything to get a runner down.

Every tackle he makes has a certain edge to it. Kareem just isn’t a normal defensive back, especially not a cornerback. He’s relentless and has an extra gear when he sees the ball and needs to close on a play. Just watch him chase down this screen from the slot and get a TFL.

His aforementioned versatility is the other thing that stood out, and not just his ability to play safety or corner but to cover outside or inside. In the six games we watched, Jackson played outside the majority of the time against the Broncos but otherwise was in the slot a ton. This allowed him to play up close to the line where he could impact the running game but was also asked to mix it up, playing some underneath zone coverage as a nickel CB and also to chase after slot receivers across the formation.

He battled it out with slot receivers like Cole Beasley and T.Y. Hilton and handled them nicely with a mix of physicality and recovery speed added to quick instincts to close on plays and make receivers uncomfortable.

Watch as he chases Buffalo Bills’ receiver Zay Jones down in the red zone to keep him out the end zone. 

Here he is as a safety carrying Odell Beckham Jr. down the seam and then tracking the ball to make a tough tackle down the sideline. That type of range is rare to find. 

Jackson is strong playing off coverage due to how fluid he is stopping on a dime and quickly reacting forward to close on the ball. He’s more than physical enough to press receivers up on the line, and though he played as a safety, his natural position is at corner where his versatile cover skills can shine.

Quicker than fast, the former Texan has veteran chops and knows to give a cushion to faster receivers deep. He can afford to do this because he can close so quickly downhill and is rarely going to get beat over the top. Due to that closing speed and a nose for the ball, Denver’s new corner has really high-end ball skills which resulted in 17 pass deflections last season—which was tied for the third-best mark by any DB in 2018.

Because of all his strengths, Jackson fits perfectly in a zone defense with his mix of closing speed, instincts, and ball skills. He is ideally suited in a cover-2 where his tackling and instincts can shine, but he can work in just about any coverage.

Beyond his physicality and ball-hawking ability, Jackson has quick feet, is smooth in his backpedal, possesses fluid hips, and is more than competent enough in man coverage.

Don’t let his age deceive you, Jackson played some of his best football last year and isn’t dependent on long speed as much as others because he’s so smooth moving forward. He ran a 4.48 40-yard dash at the 2010 combine and doesn’t look like he’s lost a step since then.

The veteran DB plays with a relentless motor on top of everything else and can be an effective blitzer, too, coming downhill and with a strong sense of timing to shoot gaps.

He isn’t perfect as he can be too physical in coverage, risking penalties. He also isn’t ideally suited to chase receivers across the formation, either, and is a bit wasted if he’s not facing the action.

He’s also a bit undersized at 5-foot-10 and a 195 pounds, but you’d never know it from watching the tape. In a press-man scheme like the Seattle Seahawks implement, he wouldn’t fit due to his size, but in a zone-heavy scheme, he’s a really nice piece in the secondary. 

He’s also proved to be durable, a concern for him coming from Alabama, and played the majority of the snaps for Houston in 2018 while playing a key role for the Texans secondary.

As a deep safety, he remains a dynamic athlete downhill who’s stout against the run and closes gaps in a hurry. He can leave too much of a cushion when covering deep and allow deep-to-intermediate grabs in front of him. When covering the deep middle of the field, he doesn’t make as many plays on the ball as his ball-hawking abilities would suggest, rather opting for a safer approach to avoid getting beat deep. He can also take bad angles coming from that far away and can miss tackles because of this every once in a while.

His best position is likely cornerback where he can play outside or inside, but the fact that he can switch seamlessly from safety to corner, and play all over the field from one snap to the next is incredibly impressive and useful.

How he fits

Jackson’s biggest selling point as far as fit is two-fold, his tackling ability—which is key for Fangio’s defense—and the fact that he can be a stand-out defender against the run, making him a truly valuable asset when opposing offenses try to exploit the Broncos nickel defense by running the ball.

Kareem, Justin Simmons, and Chris Harris Jr. are all incredibly versatile and give the Broncos a different and new identity together. The common thread with this group is they’re tough, can tackle, and can cover anywhere from the slot or out wide against some of the NFL’s best. That group gives Fangio exactly what he needs as a play-caller to mess with QB’s heads.

With the addition of Jackson, the Broncos can replicate a similar secondary to what Fangio had in Chicago; with Jackson as an upgrade over veteran corner Prince Amukamara, Harris as a more versatile version of Kendall Fuller, and Simmons as a slightly-less-reliable-but-more-physically-gifted version of Adrian Amos.

Now all Denver needs is to add a reliable third corner—maybe Isaac Yiadom can play the role of Amukamara while Jackson or Harris alternate in the slot.

The other missing piece is at strong safety where Will Parks needs to prove he can play in a two-deep look like Eddie Jackson did. Parks is better up close to the line and a sure tackler, but does he have the instincts and ball skills to consistently play deep? We saw glimpses of Parks doing this last year, 2019 will be a massive test for him.

With the addition of Jackson added to Harris, the Broncos top CBs are a bit undersized but also among the most physical in the league, an interesting juxtaposition.

Jackson is an ideal fit in Fangio’s defense with the added bonus of his versatility, allowing him to play everywhere in the secondary, giving the Broncos a massive upgrade at several spots. With just one addition the cupboard suddenly doesn’t look so bare in Denver’s back seven.