Panthers corner should be paid handsomely somewhere soon. But first, a challenge.
Carolina Panthers cornerback Donte Jackson can run. He can catch. He can cover.
But can he stay healthy?
That is the multi-million dollar question for “Action” Jackson, who is one of the team’s best players when he’s 100% but whose 2020 season was mired in the misery of a nagging turf toe injury.
Now he’s about to start a contract year for the Panthers. If he stays healthy and plays even reasonably well, Jackson may quadruple his salary by 2022 — either here or elsewhere. If he gets hurt again, it will affect his money-making ability for the rest of his career.
With that said, I wouldn’t play Jackson a single down in the upcoming three-game preseason, which starts for the Panthers at 1 p.m. Sunday in Indianapolis. (Rhule said Friday that starters won’t play this week.) He’s in his fourth year. He knows what he’s doing. Turn him into “Out-of-Action Jackson” until September.
What the Panthers have to do is get Jackson to Week 1 on Sept. 12 without any setbacks, and then through 16 more games after that. Because with Jackson and rookie cornerback Jaycee Horn on the outside and safety Jeremy Chinn disrupting everything over the middle, this secondary has a chance to be … well, let’s let Jackson describe it.
“Elite,” he said. “Definitely elite.”
While the Panthers have had their problems defending quarterbacks for years, Jackson has often been the least of them. Since he entered the league in 2018 as a second-round pick out of LSU, Jackson has a total of 10 interceptions. In today’s NFL, that’s a high mark and more than any other corner in his draft class.
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But in 2020, Jackson missed 43% of the Panthers’ defensive snaps because of a turf toe injury he sustained in Week 3 and nursed through the rest of the season. He still played in 14 of 16 games, but he’d frequently play a series and skip a series as the pain grew in intensity.
“You could be feeling great the first three plays,” Jackson said. “And on the fourth play, you made one wrong move. You never knew when it was going to pop up.”
It was frustrating enough that Jackson said he would cry on game days as the frustration took over.
“It was emotional,” Jackson said. “I knew I was limited in what I could do and how much I could help my team.”
In this training camp, though, you can tell Jackson feels good. When he’s feeling good, he’s talking big. Jackson once proclaimed he could play wide receiver for the Panthers without the team missing a beat.
When I asked him about this camp, he said: “Training camp has been great, man. I think I’ve been smooth. I’ve been solid. Been real dominant.”
As for the money, it has to be impossible not to think about at all, but Jackson is doing his best. His salary-cap hit is $2.838 million this season according to Spotrac — modest for a starting cornerback. The NFL has at least 10 cornerbacks this season that will make $13 million or more in 2021, and Jackson could get into that range in 2022 with, say, a five-interception season in which he started all 16 games.
The Panthers historically have said goodbye to their best young cornerbacks if they have to pony up $10 million or more per season to keep them: both Josh Norman and James Bradberry exited in that fashion. That was under previous GMs, though — it will be interesting in a few months to see how much new general manager Scott Fitterer values the position.
For Jackson, though, a lucrative contract feels like it’s a long way away. He’s content for the moment trying to dominate in practice and grabbing as much time as he can to be a father to his daughter, Demi.
“My daughter’s doing awesome,” he said. “She’s 3 years old but she thinks she’s 19 — that she runs the house and pays the bills. I just love it — coming home and be able to just decompress and just be a dad and just be there for her like I am for my teammates, day in and day out.”
Jackson, 25, is no longer a youngster with the Panthers, as players like Horn and Chinn both have less NFL experience. Still, the team also has players with a lot more experience than Jackson’s 43 NFL games. He referenced the J. Cole hit “Middle Child” when we talked, saying that’s where he felt his place was on this team.
“I still ask a lot of questions of the older guys,” Jackson said, “but I get asked a lot of questions, too. So there’s a give and take to it.”
As for this season, Jackson hopes to be able to give it his all. But for the preseason, I hope the Panthers take him off the field. As it is for so many NFL veterans — and that’s what Jackson is now — the preseason just isn’t worth the risk.
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 12:55 PM.
