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RB Darius Jackson = ELITE ATHLETE (1 Viewer)

Ilov80s

Ilov80s

Footballguy
I have no clue how or why this guy is totally going unrecognized. Even Waldman and Bloom spent like an hour talking all kinds of running backs and never mentioned Jackson.

This guy has everything you could want from an NFL RB sleeper prospect. 

Darius Jackson RB Eastern Michigan

Here is what I like:

ELITE ATHLETE

6-1 220     4.35  40       41 inch vertical       133 inch broad jump       4.27 20 yard shuttle      6.82 3 cone drill       20 reps on bench press

What we have here is a player with a rare combination of size, speed and explosiveness. 

COLLEGE PRODUCTION

1279 yards     5.2 ypc     16 TDs      21 receptions

NEGATIVES:

Played at EMU so he rarely played against top level competition. He didn't see significant playing time until his senior year (very little wear and tear). He is a senior (although he won't turn 23 until December so given the lifespan of NFL RBs, he is plenty young). 

Here is the highlight reel

 
The back I saw in that highlight reel, and with those measurables easily gains 2300 combined yards and scores 22 touchdowns.  That back gets a minimum of 28 touches a game.  So how come he has such low production?  Is he stupid, unreliable, injury prone, a discipline problem, what?

 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
The back I saw in that highlight reel, and with those measurables easily gains 2300 combined yards and scores 22 touchdowns.  That back gets a minimum of 28 touches a game.  So how come he has such low production?  Is he stupid, unreliable, injury prone, a discipline problem, what?
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Eastern mich is probably one of the worst football programs in college football history. He probably got no help from the coaches or the rest of his team

 
Ditkaless Wonders said:
The back I saw in that highlight reel, and with those measurables easily gains 2300 combined yards and scores 22 touchdowns.  That back gets a minimum of 28 touches a game.  So how come he has such low production?  Is he stupid, unreliable, injury prone, a discipline problem, what?
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That is the puzzling part. By all accounts, he is a great kid. He went to EMU because they would let him play football and baseball. He never really saw the field until his senior year. I posted his senior year stats. They are good, but not amazing. All I can really guess is that it is EMU and they are about the worst D1 team in the country. 

 
bicycle_seat_sniffer said:
Eastern mich is probably one of the worst football programs in college football history. He probably got no help from the coaches or the rest of his team
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That would explain low efficiency, but not low volume.  A kid like that at a bad program should have been someone they rode into the ground.  But for three years they hardly called his name.  No idea why, but it's a good question.

 
wdcrob said:
That would explain low efficiency, but not low volume.  A kid like that at a bad program should have been someone they rode into the ground.  But for three years they hardly called his name.  No idea why, but it's a good question.
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Poor coachin is a reason for low volume. 

 
Looked at him some more, trying to find answers. In high school, he was named to the All-State Academic Team so he's not a dummy. EMU has another solid back (Shaq Vann). They run a spread offense where it is common for Jackson and Vann to be on the field at the same time. Jackson got 68% of the team's RB carries.  EMU only had about  300 RB carries. I am not sure how long he played baseball at EMU. Maybe that interfered with his progress at RB. 

 
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bicycle_seat_sniffer said:
Poor coachin is a reason for low volume. 
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Also, I know EMU lost their starting QB for a portion of the year. They played LSU with their back-up. For some reason the coaching staff or QB got away from using Jackson in the passing game. In the first 4 games, he caught 12 balls for 171 yards and a TD. In the remaining 8 games, he only caught 9 passes and it was for on;y 30 yards. It seems like like they really got away from using him in the passing game other than checkdowns. Shaq Vann (their other back) had 1 catch through 3 games and then went on to total 37 by the end of the year.  Shaq  stole that work from Jackson. I get that Vann was good in that role, but when you look at the highlights, there is at least one deep route Jackson runs where he makes a smooth over the shoulder catch. He was an all state outfielder in high school and can track balls. I think he has a lot of potential in the passing game.  

 
Here is one more video. It has a lot of the same highlights, but it also has every play of his against LSU. In Death Valley, with a back-up QB, this was as big of a college football mismatch as you can have. He wasn't very efficient and had very little running room, but he showed toughness. The LSU tape starts at about 2:00 minutes. 

 
Eastern Michigan RB Darius Jackson has visits scheduled with Baltimore, Miami and Detroit.
 
Jackson, fresh off a visit to the Jets' facility on Monday, is quite popular at the moment. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound back forced evaluators to go back to the tape after he posted a 40 in the mid-4.3s to go with insane leaps of 41 inches (vertical) and 11-foot-1 (broad) at his Pro Day event. Apr 14 - 10:01 PM

Source: Tony Pauline on Twitter 
Click to expand...


NFL Media analyst Gil Brandt wrote that Eastern Michigan RB Darius Jackson "had a dynamite [Pro Date] workout, and could be a late-round selection in the 2016 NFL Draft."
 
Just a quick glance at Jackson's testing results reveal athleticism galore. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound back shredded the 40-yard dash in 4.35 and 4.38 seconds and notched insane leaps of 41 inches (vertical) and 11-foot-1 (broad). Last season, he exploded for 1,088 rushing yards (5.2 YPC) while scoring 14 touchdowns. He initially (in part) chose to attend Eastern Michigan based on the fact that he could play both baseball and football there, but ultimately decided to stick it out solely with football. Mar 26 - 6:56 PM

Source: NFL.com
Click to expand...

 
:blackdot:

I was looking at DJ Foster, I think I might have been looking at the wrong guy. 

vs Toledo (2015)

EMU's QB looks just awful. Notice right away that this guys blocking is atrocious, probably my biggest concern.

 
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Run It Up said:
:blackdot:

I was looking at DJ Foster, I think I might have been looking at the wrong guy. 

vs Toledo (2015)

EMU's QB looks just awful. Notice right away that this guys blocking is atrocious, probably my biggest concern.
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He does not look good in that video. Nobody did. EMU is an awful mess. His blocking will definitely be an issue for him, it is bad. 

 
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Drafted him at 5.02 in a rookie draft today, actually. 14 teamer, so I took him as the 58th player off the board, didn't want to risk someone else grabbing him before my next pick. 

Drafting before the NFL draft brings some quirks to the league obviously, but it makes watching the NFL draft a thrill and rewards good talent evaluation (as well as good luck of course, in terms of landing spots).

The draft: http://www62.myfantasyleague.com/2016/options?L=17349&O=17

 
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Ilov80s said:
Nope. He's completely off the fantasy community's radar. 
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I considered taking him as my last pick in an April Mock but then decided better to let sleeper picks lie.

I appreciate some of the digging into his background here guys. Thanks for that. 

 
There has been some discussion of Darius Jackson in my thread on this year's prospects. My current take is: elite athlete, okay college production, doesn't look that good on tape against LSU or Toledo, probably worth taking in the 3rd round of rookie drafts (or later if you trust that he'll still be there).

 
ZWK said:
There has been some discussion of Darius Jackson in my thread on this year's prospects. My current take is: elite athlete, okay college production, doesn't look that good on tape against LSU or Toledo, probably worth taking in the 3rd round of rookie drafts (or later if you trust that he'll still be there).
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Very raw and difficult to really judge based on the team he played for. There are big red flags, but his athleticism seems to make him the kind of longshot worth taking a flier on.

 
Who's in front of him? McFadden? Time to put him out to pasture. Morris is a bum. This guy is better than both of them. They will both be gone by this time next year.

 
Well for one, Morris isn't a bum. The only thing that was wrong with Alfred was the scheme changed.

McFadden was what, the 3rd leading rusher in roughly half a season? 

You may be right that McFadden gets cut but that's only cause they brought in Morris. 

 
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zed2283 said:
Got some early reps in game 2.
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Looked good in game 1. Didn't see game 2. He showed some acceleration and vision on a cutback. He looked every bit of 6-1 220+ pounds. If he gets daylight, he's going to show real breakaway speed. 

 
Claimed off waivers by Browns. I keep seeing people are fairly unimpressed with Crowell...may be something to keep tabs on this offseason.

 
Have to think he may make the Cowboys roster given his preseason play. He’s shown more in the passing game than Scarbrough and apparently he’s been working a bit as a returner. 

 
Bojang0301 said:
Have to think he may make the Cowboys roster given his preseason play. He’s shown more in the passing game than Scarbrough and apparently he’s been working a bit as a returner. 
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That's good. I graduated from Eastern so nice to see a guy sticking around. He has bounced around a bit, but he is an athlete. Maybe one day he will get his 15 minutes. 

 
He has been signed to the practice squad over Bo Scarbrough. As of now he is still third in line with Dallas keeping only two RB’s in Zeke and Rod Smith. I will be rostering if possible in my deep leagues.

Edit to add: Apparently Chunn on the PS too. He was ahead of Chunn at the end of camp.

 
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I like a gem as much as the next guy, but barring an injury to one of the other RBs, I'm guessing he's cut as soon as Aaron Jones is back. Especially on a team that just kept like 17 WRs & TEs.

 
tombonneau said:
I like a gem as much as the next guy, but barring an injury to one of the other RBs, I'm guessing he's cut as soon as Aaron Jones is back. Especially on a team that just kept like 17 WRs & TEs.
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Or watch and see what they do with Trevor Davis if this kid can handle return duties.

 
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