Lamar Jackson: College Prospect Analysis

As the NFL Draft approaches, a closer look at the top prospects is essential. This article delves into the college career of Lamar Jackson, analyzing his strengths, weaknesses, and potential in the NFL.

Introduction

Lamar Jackson entered the NFL Draft as one of the most electrifying and debated prospects. His remarkable college career at Louisville was marked by record-breaking performances and a Heisman Trophy win in 2016. However, questions about his accuracy and ability to transition to the NFL style of play led to varied opinions among analysts and scouts. This analysis explores Jackson's college performance, examining his strengths and weaknesses to assess his potential impact in the NFL.

College Career Overview

Lamar Jackson played college football for the Louisville Cardinals, where he quickly became one of the sport's most prominent stars. Throughout his career, Jackson showcased exceptional athleticism, a strong arm, and remarkable playmaking ability.

Freshman Season (2015)

Jackson started his freshman season competing for the starting job. He played in 12 games and made eight starts, demonstrating his potential early on. While his passing numbers didn't immediately stand out, his rushing ability was a clear threat to opposing defenses.

Sophomore Season (2016): Heisman Trophy Winner

In 2016, Jackson set college football on fire, winning the Heisman Trophy. Jackson completed 56 percent of his passes for 3,543 yards with 30 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He also ran for 21 touchdowns and 1,571 yards while averaging six yards per carry.

Read also: Lamar's Visual Identity

Junior Season (2017)

Jackson’s 2017 was comparable to his Heisman-winning season. In 2017, Jackson completed 59 percent of his passes for 3,660 yards with 27 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He averaged 6.9 yards per carry on the ground on his way to 1,601 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns.

Strengths

Exceptional Athleticism and Running Ability

When Jackson's in the open field, he doesn't look like a quarterback. He essentially ran like one and he rarely took the hard, bruising hits that wear down ball-carriers throughout a game and season.

One general manager from an AFC team told WalterFootball.com that Jackson is the most dynamic player in the 2018 NFL Draft. With amazing running ability, speed, Jackson is a rare talent who possesses a phenomenal skill set.

Arm Strength and Throwing Ability

Of the top quarterback prospects for the 2018 NFL Draft, Jackson has the most athletic ability and dual-threat danger to give defenses huge problems. He has elite arm strength with a powerful gun that can make devastating throws. Jackson’s arm is so strong that he can make throws off platform that other quarterbacks can only make after having set their feet. With just a flick of the wrist, the ball explodes out of Jackson’s hands, and he can beat good coverage with perfect throws that very few quarterbacks can make.

Pocket Presence and Field Vision

Jackson also hangs tough in the pocket while staring down the barrel to deliver passes while under the pass rush. He showed good field vision to work through progressions with pocket presence and patience to let routes develop. Jackson can buy time with his feet, and although so many of his highlights were dominated by runs, Jackson has a devastating arm to hurt defenses downfield. He also ran a complicated college offense, displaying full command of the system.

Weaknesses

Accuracy Issues

Though Jackson was more dynamic than not and made plenty of highlight reel throws, he didn't always make the most accurate ones. In his three seasons at Louisville, Jackson never finished a season with a completion percentage better than 60 percent. A key theme whenever the Cardinals lost in 2017 was Jackson's accuracy, as his completion percentage cleared 60 percent in just one of the team's five losses. This goes beyond the interceptions and incompletions, too, as Jackson often makes his receivers work harder than they should. As Zierlein notes, Jackson's accuracy while throwing on the run took a dip in 2017.

Jackson has issues with poor footwork at this time; when he throws, he transfers too much weight to his front foot with his back foot off the ground. That leads to him sailing passes and making overthrows. Jackson has to improve his accuracy and footwork for the NFL. If he improves his feet, Jackson’s accuracy will improve from that.

Injury Risk

Jackson had an uncanny knack to not only evade would-be tacklers, but also find his way toward the sideline without avoiding contact. That will serve him well in the NFL, but it doesn't guarantee he'll be able to avoid the inevitable bone-crunching hit that will come his way at some point.

The other issue is weight as Jackson has a thin frame and needs to add more muscle to help protect against injury in the NFL. While Jackson is skinnier than the ideal, he was very durable in college and much more so than Josh Rosen or Josh Allen. With his elusiveness, Jackson dodges a lot of big hits, and you rarely ever saw him take a big shot while running. With his speed and slippery moves, Jackson is hard to square up for defenders.

Wonderlic Test Score

Jackson also had an alarmingly low score on the Wonderlic test. Part of that could be from him not hiring an agent who would have him prepared and had him doing practice tests. Jackson is being represented by his mother, and teams have had a hard time communicating with them to set up workouts, visits, and meetings. Still, his Wonderlic score is concerning.

NFL Potential and Comparisons

From a skill-set perspective, Jackson is very similar to Michael Vick. Jackson is extremely fast and explodes down the field when he takes off on the run. Jackson can take off when plays break down and is a threat to score from anywhere on the field by just using his feet and his elusive running in the open field. In the open field, Jackson is a shifty runner who weaves around defenders with excellent moves in the open field to juke would-be tacklers. He is a dynamic and electric runner for the NFL.

Player Comparison: Michael Vick. Both players are electric runners with strong arms capable of making devastating throws. Vick struggled with accuracy in many seasons during his NFL career, and Jackson has accuracy issues entering the league. Jackson receives solid marks for his intangibles, as opposed to Vick, who had awful character and horrible intangibles. Those issues led to Vick being a massive underachiever, and fortunately, Jackson does not have those problems.

Draft Projections and Potential Landing Spots

There are a lot of quarterback-needy teams in the NFL, and Jackson should have plenty of potential landing spots. The Browns need a franchise quarterback, and Jackson could be in play for them if they take position players at picks No. 1 and No. 4 and then target Jackson in a trade-up from the second round. The Giants could use a young franchise quarterback with Eli Manning aging. If they take a player like Saquon Barkley with the second-overall pick, they could target Jackson in a trade up from Round 2, or they could potentially trade down in the first round and take Jackson. The Redskins, Cardinals, Chargers, Saints, Bills, Jaguars and Steelers all could target Jackson as their quarterback of the future. Washington and Arizona seem like good potential fits for Jackson in the early teens. Buffalo has two first-round picks, so using one on Jackson could make sense for the organization if it is unable to trade up from pick No. 12. The Chargers, Saints and Steelers all could groom Jackson for a year or two behind their aging star quarterbacks. He could become a true franchise quarterback for those teams. Jacksonville could take Jackson as an upgrade over Blake Bortles. The Jaguars could groom Jackson while playing Bortles and then make the switch when Jackson is ready. After the trades last year by the Chiefs and Texans for young franchise quarterbacks, one can’t rule out the possibility that a team will move up for Jackson.

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