NFL Draft: The 29 players Tennessee Titans should consider in round one
By Will Lomas
24. Austin Jackson OT, USC
This is the player that I feel least comfortable about evaluating on this entire list. Jackson isn’t a bad player, but I never saw anything to suggest that he should be a top-40 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
That opinion got reassessed when I found out that he donated bone marrow to his sister right before the 2019 season.
While I really respect the thought behind that decision, the thought wasn’t the reason I had to change my evaluation.
The reason is because it takes a lot of resilience to be able to have a surgery like that and then come back and shift your focus to football and start 13 games as a junior. It also means that he was likely never at 100% for the season and theoretically you are getting a player with better quickness and lower body strength than what you see on film.
That is important because if he was a little bit better in pass protection I would feel more comfortable with him as a prospect and it would move him up this list. However, I can’t move a player up just because of what they might be so right now I have to stick with my evaluation of him.
Right now I see him as a guy who would face struggles flipping to the right side of the offensive line especially in pass pro, but who is young and looks good enough in the run game to be worth a mid-second round pick.