Tennessee Titans CB Adoree Jackson is near the top of NFL in targets

A look at Tennessee Titans third year starter Adoree Jackson.

I have said since the end of last season that with how the defensive backs finished the year, the Tennessee Titans have a chance to have one of the best if not the best, groups of DBs in the NFL.

The MMCNB crew seems to have it all:

–Kevin Byard is the league’s best safety.

–Kenny Vaccaro is his perfect compliment to Byard with the balance to play free or strong safety.

–Logan Ryan is a very solid boundary corner that moonlights as a top-5 slot CB.

–Malcolm Butler has shown the ability to be a true playmaker in the past and looked to be returning to that form in the second half of 2018.

-And then there is Adoree Jackson.

Let’s talk about Jackson, starting with this stat that the Midday 180 just Tweeted:

To talk about this, you need to remember what Jon Robinson (and really this defense) seems to value in a cornerback. It doesn’t seem to matter how often you get targeted, it is more about your ability to break up passes and handle your business in one-on-one situations.

The best example of this is how frequently the Titans have their CBs play 5-7 yards off the line of scrimmage.

I hate that style of play because it basically gives free yards to the offense, but the goal for the Titans defense there is to attack the ball and tempt the offense into wasting a down on a play that really doesn’t have a chance to result in any point.

The way you do that is by having boundary CBs that can accelerate quickly and make tackles on their own. This is what turns those quick passes into one or two yard gains instead of five yard gains.

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So, while Jackson may be targeted a lot he is also tied for the NFL lead in solo tackles over the last two years. Which means that even if he is getting targeted a lot and giving up those completions, that stat doesn’t tell you whether that is a 10 yard pass completion, an incomplete pass, a 1-yard gain, or a 4-yard gain on 3rd and 20.

Another thing that targets don’t contextualize is pass break ups. After all those targets he is still tied for 9th in the NFL in PBUs by a CB.

Last year, Jackson broke up 9.5% of the passes that went his way not including incomplete passes that were overthrown or out of bounds. Compare that to guys like Patrick Peterson, Marcus Peters, Xavier Rhodes, Trumaine Johnson, and others and you get a very similar or worse number.

So while Adoree Jackson is getting targeted a lot, some of that is by design and the plays that aren’t by design are plays where he is in a position to contest the catch.

Is it a good thing that he is targeted so much or is he the best cornerback in the NFL, no obviously that isn’t what I am saying. What I am saying is that the target number is inflated and when he is thrown at past the line of scrimmage he is usually in a good position to either make the tackle or break up the pass.

With the state of cornerbacks in the NFL, I’ll take that as a win for the Titans though it would clearly be more fun if he was picking off a pass every game or was so intimidating that QBs didn’t even throw it his way.