Austin Jackson

[Jssanto]

What about the injuries? Maybe just maybe he was never fully healthy? Jackson played only three games in 2022 due to ankle issues and was on injured reserve twice.

"Jackson hurt his ankle in the team's season opener and was placed on injured reserve. He returned in late November but sustained another injury in his first game back. The team placed him on IR again two weeks later, which forced him to sit out the remainder of the season."

Injuries, youth, coming back from the bone marrow donation, poor coaching. Many possible reasons and maybe some of them add together.
Still, I would like to see more games in a row with success.

 

[Wesyad]

They stated when he was drafted that he was young and it would take time for him to develop. It probably took longer than they wanted but injuries in his rookie season and last year prevented him from continuing his development.

Also having some questionable coaching from the past OL coaches certainly didn’t help him or the other offensive linemen. Now with better coaching and remaining healthy, the light appears to have come on and he is finally playing at the level we hoped he would when they drafted him.

The biggest thing imo is we had a 1st year head oline coach with absolutely 0 experience in line coaching teaching a 1st round projection talent. AJ was set to fail from the get go and that is 100% on Flores shoulders the moment he fired his Oline coach 1 week before training camp in his first season.

 

[PHINSfan]

We cannot let our talent depart, I doubt AJ will be ultra-elite by the end of the year.

However, I believe he will continue to be an ascending player over the next couple of years as he was so young when drafted.

Can’t blame the team for not picking up the 5th year option. But until now he really didn’t show enough to have earned that. Hope we find a way to keep him considering how many free agents we will have next year.

 

[The Ghost]

I said it all off-season and I'll say it again, just give me an average/healthy OL and we're good.

We'll draft more talent and put together a real OL over the next 2-3 years.

I have a feeling teams will be leery signing any of our guys and thinking they will get great results.

 

[gregorygrant83]

The criticism was warranted. Finally playing well in a contract year doesn’t erase all the bad play the previous years. There was a reason the team didn’t pick up his 5th year option.

What about the injuries? Maybe just maybe he was never fully healthy? Jackson played only three games in 2022 due to ankle issues and was on injured reserve twice.

"Jackson hurt his ankle in the team's season opener and was placed on injured reserve. He returned in late November but sustained another injury in his first game back. The team placed him on IR again two weeks later, which forced him to sit out the remainder of the season."

Jackson played tackle his rookie year and guard in year two. He played the equivilent of 2 game worth of snaps in his 3rd year so not enough to really grade him good or bad. You can't judge a player at a position just based on his rookie season. Especially considering the coaching staff at the time and the lack of experiened oline talent around him.

 

[Marino2.0]

I have a feeling teams will be leery signing any of our guys and thinking they will get great results.

This is my hope, too. We can’t afford to pay our entire OL if they keep playing this well. But I am hopeful that the decision makers around the league see our team and think the OL performance is at least partly, if not entirely, due to the system.

I wouldn’t mind spreading $30M per year around between Hunt, Williams, Jackson, and Wynn. But I’m afraid it might take closer to $50M per year to keep all four of them if they keep playing like this, and that’s too rich for my blood.

 

[Miami4471]

It's been a combination of age, injuries and finally coaching. Butch Barry was not universally welcomed when we hired him because of what happened at Denver but he's made a huge difference to our OL. I bet Denver wish they had him after yesterday

 

[Mr Fan]

Can’t blame the team for not picking up the 5th year option. But until now he really didn’t show enough to have earned that. Hope we find a way to keep him considering how many free agents we will have next year.

I have no problem paying for our big guys if they show they are worth it, they don't usually just tank it one day.

If we want to keep him, Grier will there is always a little magic that can be done with the cap, and Tua is not durable enough to have a questionable line.

 

[Travis34]

Dude has made a massive turnaround in his career. Looking like that first rounder that he should be

 

[royalshank]

See, this might be why PFF makes no sense. They have Jackson in the bottom 50% of OTs. They can’t possibly be looking at this stuff.

 

['Deep]

Glad see AJ playing well. Just stay healthy, big guy. We need ya in there!

 

[multistage]

Does he deserve elite money?

He’s got 14+ games to prove it.