Donovan Jackson's mindset is driving his strong rookie season
The Vikings rookie has shown maturity in his quick adaptation to the NFL
By Matthew Coller
EAGAN —From his first press conference with the Minnesota Vikings, it was evident that Donovan Jackson had a friendly disposition. He smiled and politely answered questions about his move from guard to tackle at Ohio State and talked about the viral video from his draft night in which his cat, named Leonardo DiCatio, made an appearance.
“I’m open to all animals,” he told the assembled media, who were probably expecting something a little more snarly from the 6-foot-4, 320-pound kid who was supposed to change the fate of the Vikings offensive line.
However, over his first eight NFL games, Jackson has proven that off-field personality and on-field personality are not always related.
He has quickly developed into a difference maker on the Vikings’ offensive line, ranking No. 1 among rookie guards in PFF pass blocking grade (16th of 58 overall) and has shown a nasty side in the run game that pairs very nicely with his elite athleticism.
This week, Jackson told Purple Insider that nastiness in the NFL doesn’t always manifest itself in the way people typically think. Being imposing isn’t the 1970s NFL Films Oakland Raiders style foaming-mouth, late-hit, screaming-lunatic type of thing that you would expect. He said that if you are playing technically correct football for the position, that it should look pretty darn violent on tape.
“[Offensive line coach Chris Kuper] told me when I first got here: ‘You can solve a lot of things by being aggressive,’” Jackson said. “If I come off the ball as hard as possible and put the crown of my helmet under their chin and just run, it just solves a lot of issues when it comes to technique. You have to know when to rein it in and when to crank it up.”
This is Jackson in a nutshell. The Vikings rookie left guard isn’t into trying to prove he’s a tough guy, instead he’s obsessed with learning the proper way to move giant men for his running backs and quarterback.
“I just try to be as coachable as possible,” Jackson said. “Sure, I consider myself a very smart player and I’m able to pick up things fast. When I came in, I wasn’t at the point where I needed to be but me having an open mind to coaching to make sure they can mold me into the player I can be. I’m still not where I need to be. I know that every week I need to continue to get better. I know where I want to go. Just having that mindset of coming in every day with something that I want to improve on.”
It didn’t take Jackson long to realize that he was going to need coaching in order to jump from Ohio State to the NFL. During his first training camp, he spent the summer trying to contain veteran star defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave and figure out defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ blitzes. There were a lot of tough lessons along the way.
“I could get away with a lot of stuff [in college] and when I was drafted I had a lot of bad habits that came with me,” Jackson said. “It took a lot of consistency and every-day practice to try to break those habits and then the overall strength of the game is different. Playing against grown men who have been playing this game for a really long time.”
In order to break those habits, Jackson has learned to be critical of himself without hurting his own confidence.
“You’ll come out of practice some days and there’s so many things that you have to fix and it can be a little overwhelming,” the rookie lineman said. “Or you’ll watch tape and you’ll be like, ‘that’s not me.’ I’ve had a couple of games where it’s like, ‘that’s not how I should play,’ and it’s like, not trying to get down on yourself too much and staying positive to make sure that you have that attitude that you’ll have another opportunity to go out there and play again.”
Jackson called dealing with the L’s on tape his “biggest mental hurdle.” He talked to veteran players about how to handle the tough games. They reminded him that the opposing players are pretty darn good at football too and that perfection at this level is not obtainable.
Pro Bowl tackle Brian O’Neill offered sage advice on how to learn from mistakes.
“The sign of a mature player, being able to say, ‘hey, this wasn’t good enough but why?’ Not so fixated or freaking out because you’ve had a bad result. Analyze what happened without attaching any emotion to it,” O’Neill said.
The important part, O’Neill said, is finding the right answers on the tape, not overreacting to one particular result.
“Rather than, ‘oh s— he beat me and now I have to try something completely different and go outside the scope of who I am as a player,’ acknowledge whatever happened good or bad — same way with good, ‘oh my god I just dogged that guy,’ instead it’s: why did I have success here?” O’Neill said.
During training camp, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell noticed that Jackson was making corrections at a very impressive rate. That has carried over to the season as well.
“The best part about him is if something gets him or he gets beat on something or he’s got to be a little altering to his technique in the run game or the pass game, he does it and doesn’t need Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, he’ll do it in game,” O’Connell said.
And Jackson hasn’t exactly had the most stable environment to work with throughout the season. Early in the year, he played next to backup left tackle Justin Skule. When center Ryan Kelly got hurt, he was alongside backup center Michael Jurgens and then his replacement Blake Brandel.
“He’s played next to a few guys now throughout the year on that offensive line, and both him and Will [Fries] have been really, really kind of guys that if they weren’t as consistent as they were, I don’t know necessarily if we’d be where we are now or even able to get through some of the adversity we have,” O’Connell said.
It’s also worth pointing out that the friendly, cat-loving guard has shown some of the blood-and-guts required to be a key starter in the NFL.
O’Connell was particularly impressed that Jackson, after injuring his wrist to the point of needing surgery, taped it up and played one more game against Cincinnati before getting it repaired. Was it advisable to play? Probably not, but he figured since it was already mangled, that he could get one more game in. After the surgery, he came back as soon as possible.
“You look at how he dealt with the wrist injury and then able to come back and beat the timeline…[that’s] as you would want a young player to be,” O’Connell said.
O’Neill said that Jackson has also started to let the competitive side of him take over during games.
“He’s playing his best ball when he’s got an ‘F-you’ mindset,” O’Neill said. “He’s actively talking on the sideline, talking about what he sees and how we can beat them. If he’s feeling it, he’ll let you know on the bench over there. Not talking s— to them but talking s— to us is a good thing in a game.”
While he might be all about the technique and improvement, it’s easy to tell that Jackson is enjoying the gritty part of the game too.
“It takes a lot to move grown men against their will but when it does happen, you’re like, ‘nice,’” Jackson said. “You want to get in the huddle and do it again.”
One of my absolute favorites. Having him by Darrisaw is going to be more fun each season.
I know Fries hasn’t quite lived up to expectations yet and the center spot is still up in the air as far as the next couple of seasons go, but it is crazy to think that we probably wont have to worry about the interior of the OL for the foreseeable future. Lot of similarities with JJ, and some of their other big picks, in that he seems like a super high character guy who is very coachable and from a major college program. Hasn’t worked out with JJ yet, and Turner obviously still has a ways to go, but I don’t hate that as an overall draft philosophy.