Philadelphia Eagles: First Team All-American Tarron Jackson joins the nest

Howie Roseman and the Philadelphia Eagles have always prioritized “building through the trenches” when it comes to their roster construction philosophy, and thus far, they’ve held true to that belief here in the latter stages of the 2021 NFL Draft.

They took defensive tackle Milton Williams with their third-round pick, defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu at pick 189, and EDGE Tarron Jackson here at pick 191. Love it or hate it, the Eagles are going to be walking into training camp this summer with a completely rejuvenated group of defensive linemen.

A 2020 First Team All-American hailing from Coastal Carolina, Jackson had an insanely productive four years of college ball. Across 41 total games, Jackson recorded 24.5 sacks, 42.0 TFLs, and six forced fumbles. Some elite level production from a lineman who can rush the passer from multiple different positions.

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Here’s a little bit of what “The Draft Network” had to say about Jackson during the pre-draft process:

"He’s a densely built player with plenty of strength in his frame, but where he really flashes is with the hand usage to discard of blocks. His strike precision isn’t always flawless, but his awareness of attacking hands offers you plenty of hope for what he can become with more consistency. Jackson has good get off, good range, good effort, and showcases good leverage; he checks the baseline boxes to serve a rotational role early on and hopefully continues to progress into a starting role with time. Jackson showed up at the Senior Bowl at a trim 260 pounds in 2021—if he can maintain his playing weight there, he can be more dynamic as a pass rusher and potentially level up his game in other ways. In all, Jackson has the hand usage and pop throughout his frame to command attention in the draft process, although he will face questions regarding his big-play production against some of the better teams on Coastal Carolina’s schedule.Ideal Role: Developmental edge rusher or hybrid defensive lineman."

The Philadelphia Eagles don’t have an immediate need when it comes to DE, but the longterm future of the position is looking rather murky. Both Josh Sweat and Derek Barnett are set to be free agents after this season, and Brandon Graham isn’t getting any younger. With Vinny Curry now out of the picture, there’s definitely a spot on the depth chart for someone like Jackson.

Standing in at 6-2.5 and 260lbs, Jackson has the natural size to play in a stereotypical 4-3 defense, and like mentioned previously, he has some experience moving around the line of scrimmage and attacking the QB from various spots.

Philadelphia Eagles bolster D-Line depth, draft EDGE Tarron Jackson.

If he has a strong first year of development in 2021, you’re looking a player who could potentially assume the regular DE3 role on the Eagles defensive line by 2022.

It’s never wise to but too much stock in sixth-round picks – these are the types of selections that typically need more than one season to develop into actual role players. However, from a pure scheme fit standpoint, I can see why Jackson was atop the Philadelphia Eagles draft board here at 191.