Seahawks free agent target: CB J.C. Jackson would fix the secondary

The Seattle Seahawks need to upgrade several positions or at least solidify them. Signing cornerback J.C. Jackson this offseason would do both. At this point, it is very unlikely that the New England Patriots, Jackson’s current team, will franchise tag the All-Pro.

Jackson was an undrafted free agent out of Maryland four years ago. Since then, he has become one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. He has 25 interceptions in those four seasons with 17 of them coming in the last two years. He also led the NFL in passes defended in 2021 with 23. Jackson somehow didn’t make the Pro Bowl in 2020 even though he had 9 picks but he did in 2021 when he had 8.

Jackson also had a great passer-rating-allowed of just 46.8 when targeted. Just 52 passes of his 106 targets were completed, a percentage of less than 50. The crazy thing is that even though Jackson has a lot more interceptions in his last two seasons, his quarterback rating (which was still great in 2020 and 2021) was even better his first two years.

J.C. Jackson would be a great fit for the Seattle Seahawks

Jackson would also give the Seahawks a slighter bigger corner than D.J. Reed (assuming Reed re-signs) and Tre Brown. Jackson is 6’1″ and 200 pounds, both big enough and fast enough to cover the best receivers in the league. Jackson is also just 26 years old and should have many seasons left to be a number one corner.

Jackson isn’t going to be cheap, though. The good thing is the Seahawks have the eighth-most cap space in the NFL this offseason so have some money to spend. New England also has a bit of cap space as well and they could extend Jackson, but Jackson appears to feel a bit slighted that New England hasn’t already given him an extension or franchise tagged him.

But this is the Patriots we are talking about and they will let great players leave (i.e. Chandler Jones) instead of getting into a bidding war with other teams. It is difficult to argue with the way New England does things as they have been so successful but at some point not re-signing great players will cost them. Maybe it already has when they let Tom Brady leave.

Jackson is projected by CBS Sports to get an offer by some team of up to $100 million with incentives and an average salary of $19.4 million over five years. This is a ton of money but Jackson appears to be a generational player and would give the Seahawks a shutdown corner for several years.

Plus, with a new defensive coaching staff in place for the Seahawks in 2022 and one that appears to want to be more aggressive (based on the histories of associate head coach Sean Desai and passing game coordinator Karl Scott). Signing Jackson would give Seattle more freedom to be aggressive. If Seattle re-signs Reed as well and also signs Jackson, the Seahawks would then have one of the better cornerback duos in the NFL.