I’ve been higher on Jackson than many, certainly than Coller, who I’ve felt knocked him unfairly several times throughout this process until the end (ripping him for his game against Penn State to Sikkema stands out. His first in moving to Tackle. Against Abdul Carter. Yeah, that could be a struggle). Zabel, Grant, Jackson, Amos. I wanted one of those four with the first pick so I'm happy with this selection.
As Coller said, there was a big drop off after Jackson to the next Guard with potential to produce anything in year one. Yes, reaching for need is bad, but picking for immediate value is good. Tarzan said that. There are a bunch of DTs who can provide rotational value in the 90-140 range, but there weren't any Guards coming in to do that.
Would I have rather had Zabel? Yes, but nearly everyone had him going to Seattle so I didn’t expect him to be available at 24. I liked Jackson more from a Zone scheme perspective than Booker. For what it’s Jackson’s grades (71.9) at G last year are better than Booker’s (66.5). Jackson doesn’t have the highs of either of them—not as fast as Zabel or as strong as Booker, but he also has things over each—stronger than Zabel and a much better mover than Booker. So Jackson is Goldilocks, just right.
The “reaches” comments over and over from Coller and others last seem out of touch with the research and data he’s provided before and effectively reiterates in this article. When you see 3 guards in Booker, Zabel, and Jackson, ranked 31, 33, and 36 respectively on Arif’s Consensus Board all go between 12 and 24 maybe the media is out of touch with the value of the position. Dane Brugler said a few hours before the draft that what people “in the league” were telling him was that O-line would be drafted heavily in the first round and higher than draftniks were predicting. Yep.
Last, I believe the noise that Houston wanted Jackson so moving back with NY takes him out of the equation. And trading back with Atlanta cost the Rams their 101st pick, meaning the Vikings likely depart with pick 97 so yep, they’d have a likely mid-first round pick next year, but they’d have 46, 139, and 187 this year. I’ll take what they did over that.
Matt addressed the "reach" comments last night after the pick during the live show. While technically a reach, saying it's a reach would be using a pretty simplistic definition without taking into context any other factor. So yeah, maybe he called it a reach, but you have to hear the rest of his explanation with the nuance.
I did hear that and think he did a fantastic job articulating all that after the fact on the selection, but felt he ignored his own findings the whole night until a number of fans in the chat ripped the selection. He called all three Guards picks reaches throughout the night based on the Consensus Board rankings. I think most of the media is behind the curve on the value of the Guard position and that's reflected in the prospect rankings. Booker went 12 and was ranked 34 on Arif's Consensus Board, Zabel was 32 and went 18, and Jackson was 36 and went 24. So technically Jackson is the smallest "reach" of the three of them, but again, if three Guards on average are being picked 16 spots ahead of the Consensus then media analysts might be the ones who need to reevaluate how they value the position. Matthew's done that and knows it, but seemed to forget about it until about 3 hours into the night.
I think there is a point to be made that for this year, in this part of the draft, reaches (within in a few selections) is fairly meaningless. The reason is this year, the difference in quality does not vary much. For example, in a normal year pick 15 is given an 85 value and pick 50 a 75 value... Well maybe this year it is pick 15 at 85 but pick 50 an 81 value... So then it really comes down to team needs/individual evaluations.
We do not know what the future holds (yeah, the extra picks would have been nice) but as said, this pick (likely) has huge, palpable impact as well as longer term benefits if Jackson is competent.
And as for the eternal Viking question.. "Can he play guard?"...... Maybe, just maybe
Spot on. I do think a lot of folks get too literal about the rankings, when to your point the difference in grades of a lot of these prospects are minor, or even the same. ESPN has Grey Zabel at an 87 grade, along with...wait for it... Egbuka, Conerly, Dart, Starks, Sanders, Arroyo, Amos, Higgins, Taylor. So 10 players. All with the same exact grade. But if you look the rankings Zabel's 32 and Taylor is way back at 41. Clearly the rankings tell us taking Taylor at 32 would be a reach! Because 87 at 32 is better than 87 at 33 which is better than 87 at 34 which is better than...
What I like about his highlights is the number of times you see him 3 seconds into the play and he's pushed his assignment 4 yards out of the hole and just continues to finish the block. If he does his job I trust the guys around them to do theirs
Great point. He, like Zabel and Booker, plays with a bit of a mean streak so that fits with Kelly and the mindset they've wanted the O-line to have. The weak to middling (last year) offensive line has been the thing to hold this offense back from being top 5 in the league. It's scary how good O'Connell's offense can be with a rock solid line.
If we have a top 5 OL.... Scary if JJM is competent because everything else, including the play caller is so good. Would love to see some more ground and pound next year. Something about wearing down and then sucking the life out of a defense is absolutely brutal to watch
Coller had a great analogy about Kwesi as new GM and how like a rookie quarterback he needed time to develop. I think he's a much better GM than he was in year one. O'Connell started better than Kwesi as a coach, but again, as Coller, Dane, and others have pointed out he hasn't gotten a whole lot better at using the run game over his three years, in other words, he's still bad at it (I should be fair and acknowledge the middle of the O-line hasn't helped). Same with his trick plays. Now, if Kwesi drafts my favorite player in the whole wide draft world, JJ Pegues of Ole Miss, then Kevin can bring in his 325 pound short yardage back for first down after first down and touchdowns galore and look as cool as Ben Johnson doing it. Coach of the Year two years in a row? Never been done you say? It's there for the taking Kevin.
Great breakdown. This revamped OL should also help time of possession, which seemed like an issue last season when they were a poor short-yardage running team. They couldn’t sustain drives as often as desired to keep opposing offenses off the field and give the D more of a break. I’m optimistic this will be less of an issue now, even if it means JJ isn’t making the number of explosive pass plays Sam produced. They should feasibly be a better overall offense in ‘25, and that starts with the line. Course, I wonder how far they could’ve traded back and still gotten Jackson.
IMO that Atlanta trade-up wasn't very enticing. The Rams sent this years first AND third round comp pick for Atlanta's #46, a 7th rounder and next years first rounder. Getting a first seems cool but the equivalent with the Vikings would have meant the only good pick we would have had this year would have been #46. Happy with the stick and pick of what most think was one of the top 3 guards with the 4th being a tier below.
I like the pick. Don’t pretend to be much of an OL tape expert, but to me he was probably the safest of the three guards that went in the first round. Faced top level competition at multiple positions, had a really good RAS score, wasn’t far behind the other two on consensus boards, and was higher than those two on several boards I trust. Kwesi sure made it seem like he didn’t get offered anything quite as high as next year’s first. End of the day, they finally exorcised the ghosts of Dru Samia and co., so it gets a “hell yeah” from me.
I’ve been higher on Jackson than many, certainly than Coller, who I’ve felt knocked him unfairly several times throughout this process until the end (ripping him for his game against Penn State to Sikkema stands out. His first in moving to Tackle. Against Abdul Carter. Yeah, that could be a struggle). Zabel, Grant, Jackson, Amos. I wanted one of those four with the first pick so I'm happy with this selection.
As Coller said, there was a big drop off after Jackson to the next Guard with potential to produce anything in year one. Yes, reaching for need is bad, but picking for immediate value is good. Tarzan said that. There are a bunch of DTs who can provide rotational value in the 90-140 range, but there weren't any Guards coming in to do that.
Would I have rather had Zabel? Yes, but nearly everyone had him going to Seattle so I didn’t expect him to be available at 24. I liked Jackson more from a Zone scheme perspective than Booker. For what it’s Jackson’s grades (71.9) at G last year are better than Booker’s (66.5). Jackson doesn’t have the highs of either of them—not as fast as Zabel or as strong as Booker, but he also has things over each—stronger than Zabel and a much better mover than Booker. So Jackson is Goldilocks, just right.
The “reaches” comments over and over from Coller and others last seem out of touch with the research and data he’s provided before and effectively reiterates in this article. When you see 3 guards in Booker, Zabel, and Jackson, ranked 31, 33, and 36 respectively on Arif’s Consensus Board all go between 12 and 24 maybe the media is out of touch with the value of the position. Dane Brugler said a few hours before the draft that what people “in the league” were telling him was that O-line would be drafted heavily in the first round and higher than draftniks were predicting. Yep.
Last, I believe the noise that Houston wanted Jackson so moving back with NY takes him out of the equation. And trading back with Atlanta cost the Rams their 101st pick, meaning the Vikings likely depart with pick 97 so yep, they’d have a likely mid-first round pick next year, but they’d have 46, 139, and 187 this year. I’ll take what they did over that.
Matt addressed the "reach" comments last night after the pick during the live show. While technically a reach, saying it's a reach would be using a pretty simplistic definition without taking into context any other factor. So yeah, maybe he called it a reach, but you have to hear the rest of his explanation with the nuance.
I did hear that and think he did a fantastic job articulating all that after the fact on the selection, but felt he ignored his own findings the whole night until a number of fans in the chat ripped the selection. He called all three Guards picks reaches throughout the night based on the Consensus Board rankings. I think most of the media is behind the curve on the value of the Guard position and that's reflected in the prospect rankings. Booker went 12 and was ranked 34 on Arif's Consensus Board, Zabel was 32 and went 18, and Jackson was 36 and went 24. So technically Jackson is the smallest "reach" of the three of them, but again, if three Guards on average are being picked 16 spots ahead of the Consensus then media analysts might be the ones who need to reevaluate how they value the position. Matthew's done that and knows it, but seemed to forget about it until about 3 hours into the night.
I think there is a point to be made that for this year, in this part of the draft, reaches (within in a few selections) is fairly meaningless. The reason is this year, the difference in quality does not vary much. For example, in a normal year pick 15 is given an 85 value and pick 50 a 75 value... Well maybe this year it is pick 15 at 85 but pick 50 an 81 value... So then it really comes down to team needs/individual evaluations.
We do not know what the future holds (yeah, the extra picks would have been nice) but as said, this pick (likely) has huge, palpable impact as well as longer term benefits if Jackson is competent.
And as for the eternal Viking question.. "Can he play guard?"...... Maybe, just maybe
Spot on. I do think a lot of folks get too literal about the rankings, when to your point the difference in grades of a lot of these prospects are minor, or even the same. ESPN has Grey Zabel at an 87 grade, along with...wait for it... Egbuka, Conerly, Dart, Starks, Sanders, Arroyo, Amos, Higgins, Taylor. So 10 players. All with the same exact grade. But if you look the rankings Zabel's 32 and Taylor is way back at 41. Clearly the rankings tell us taking Taylor at 32 would be a reach! Because 87 at 32 is better than 87 at 33 which is better than 87 at 34 which is better than...
What I like about his highlights is the number of times you see him 3 seconds into the play and he's pushed his assignment 4 yards out of the hole and just continues to finish the block. If he does his job I trust the guys around them to do theirs
Great point. He, like Zabel and Booker, plays with a bit of a mean streak so that fits with Kelly and the mindset they've wanted the O-line to have. The weak to middling (last year) offensive line has been the thing to hold this offense back from being top 5 in the league. It's scary how good O'Connell's offense can be with a rock solid line.
If we have a top 5 OL.... Scary if JJM is competent because everything else, including the play caller is so good. Would love to see some more ground and pound next year. Something about wearing down and then sucking the life out of a defense is absolutely brutal to watch
Coller had a great analogy about Kwesi as new GM and how like a rookie quarterback he needed time to develop. I think he's a much better GM than he was in year one. O'Connell started better than Kwesi as a coach, but again, as Coller, Dane, and others have pointed out he hasn't gotten a whole lot better at using the run game over his three years, in other words, he's still bad at it (I should be fair and acknowledge the middle of the O-line hasn't helped). Same with his trick plays. Now, if Kwesi drafts my favorite player in the whole wide draft world, JJ Pegues of Ole Miss, then Kevin can bring in his 325 pound short yardage back for first down after first down and touchdowns galore and look as cool as Ben Johnson doing it. Coach of the Year two years in a row? Never been done you say? It's there for the taking Kevin.
Excellent point.. And yeah, it might be nice for KOC to learn how to run the ball effectively
Great breakdown. This revamped OL should also help time of possession, which seemed like an issue last season when they were a poor short-yardage running team. They couldn’t sustain drives as often as desired to keep opposing offenses off the field and give the D more of a break. I’m optimistic this will be less of an issue now, even if it means JJ isn’t making the number of explosive pass plays Sam produced. They should feasibly be a better overall offense in ‘25, and that starts with the line. Course, I wonder how far they could’ve traded back and still gotten Jackson.
IMO that Atlanta trade-up wasn't very enticing. The Rams sent this years first AND third round comp pick for Atlanta's #46, a 7th rounder and next years first rounder. Getting a first seems cool but the equivalent with the Vikings would have meant the only good pick we would have had this year would have been #46. Happy with the stick and pick of what most think was one of the top 3 guards with the 4th being a tier below.
I like the pick. Don’t pretend to be much of an OL tape expert, but to me he was probably the safest of the three guards that went in the first round. Faced top level competition at multiple positions, had a really good RAS score, wasn’t far behind the other two on consensus boards, and was higher than those two on several boards I trust. Kwesi sure made it seem like he didn’t get offered anything quite as high as next year’s first. End of the day, they finally exorcised the ghosts of Dru Samia and co., so it gets a “hell yeah” from me.
all of the experts seem to really like this pick. SKOL!