Bears Could Use the Old Eddie Jackson

Eddie Jackson's leadership in a new coverage scheme critical to a secondary trying to reverse a downward spiral.

When Eddie Jackson picked off a deflected pass in the second practice of Bears training camp, it looked vintage 2018.

"It feels good, man. Break that cycle. Get it going," Jackson said.

Without an interception in a game for two years, Jackson is welcoming the change that the entire secondary is going through in this switch by coach Matt Eberflus to a Tampa-2 type of coverage.

Jackson, who had a passer rating against bordering total disaster last year when he gave up six touchdown passes, freely admits his part in the mess that made the Bears pass defense worst overall in passer rating against (103.3).

"I just feel like I could have got complacent sometimes," Jackson said. "Trying to do too much, instead of just being me, not listening to the outside noise and just coming in here and working, laying this foundation brick by brick."

For Jackson, seeing the secondary turn around is no spectator sport. He must lead it as the veteran of the group. 

There is instability before in solidifies and they need a veteran to point out what needs to be done when as many as three of the five starting spots could be different than last year.

"Like I said, I'm the oldest guy in the room right now, so it's a lot of guys that are looking at me how I work, how I watch film, how I am in the meeting rooms, if I'm slouching or if I'm straight up," Jackson said. "How do I take the coaching? So I'm just making sure I lead from the front and lead the right way."

Jackson took some heavy coaching for a possible perceived loaf at Thursday's practice after being beaten by Cole Kmet . So no one is above criticism in the Eberflus HITS coaching approach.

Beyond that, improving the secondary will mean making sure rookie safety Jaquan Brisker and cornerback Kyler Gordon are well-versed as possible in the system. Jackson is doing his part here with Brisker.

"I've been with him, we've been meeting," Jackson said. "Sometimes he comes to my house, we sit down, we watch film. He's asking a lot of questions. All the right questions. So they (are) on the right track."

It's a little more complicated for Gordon because he is being used at cornerback and at slot cornerback. They're alternating their first pick of the draft with Tavon Young in the slot.

"It's been fun, honestly," Gordon said. "I was excited. I had a feeling that they were going to tell me I was going to play nickel when we doing OTAs and all that, so I was prepared for that.

"When they told me, honestly, I had the biggest smile on my face because I love nickel and I love what I can do there, so it’s just been really fun."

It's a lot of mixing and match of talent and it's what Eberflus promised from camp's outset. He wants to know the full hand he's dealt and try players in different combinations.

"You've just got to be patient," Jackson said of the experimenting. I am going to be patient. However long it takes.

"I trust in the coaches to do the best thing, the best job to help us and help the defense have success. We're just willing to take whoever is out there playing next to us, whoever is on the field at one time, we already know and we've already built that mindset that we have to go out and lay everything that we've got on the line. Every play. That's kind of what we're building here."

If they don't have that approach, even veterans are not above reproach.

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