Jha’Quan Jackson 2024 NFL Draft Profile
Tulane’s Jha’Quan Jackson is the subject of this 2024 NFL Draft profile. Jackson is related to Ed Reed, and that always helps your case entering the pre-draft process is having NFL bloodlines. He’s been mentioned here before during Trey’s Draft Stock Report series, but after a nice showing at the NFL Combine, what does his draft profile look like? Let’s talk about it.
We have to talk about the elephant in the room. The production while at Tulane is not great. 109 catches for a little over 1700 yards and 17 touchdowns don’t scream a top-end prospect to me. Jackson is sort of a one-trick pony, which we will get to shortly, but I feel like to be taken seriously as a mid-round guy, the production just needs to be better. However, there are some tools that we can work with here that do make him an intriguing prospect.
I mentioned Jha’Quan Jackson in my players to watch piece heading into the NFL Combine for the pure playmaking speed he has. Jackson is dynamite in the open field, using that top-end speed to fly around the field. Feels like every time the ball is thrown his way, it’s do or die with him, he has to come down with it. I like that tenacity. When he is lined up, the defense is well aware he can take the top off on any given play. Footwork is above average, knee bend is also fine but can be refined.
My biggest knock on Jackson is the routes. The route tree is so limited. You can learn a route tree over time, especially in an NFL training camp, but it isn’t appealing to teams how few routes he has. Plus, the routes he does have are not crisp at all. In and out routes are rounded off, never really a big pop out of the breaks. He’s also prone to getting jammed at the line, partially due to his frame, also in part because the hands in press aren’t very solid to get through contact.
If you’re high on Jha’Quan Jackson, I get it to an extent. Could I use a mid-round draft pick on him? No, only because this draft class is so loaded that I know I can get guys better than him later than I normally could. With that being said, I would give Jackson a fifth to sixth-round grade. He’s someone I would like to see with a real possession guy in camp and see if he wants to absorb the knowledge to clean up the routes and expand the tree.
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