What were they thinking with the release of Darius Jackson after carrying him on the 53 for thirteen weeks? This was one of those moves which raised my blood pressure to the “danger level”. All came back to me when I saw this tweet by Bryan Broaddus from dallascowboys.com when asked about the release of Jackson.
Here’s a guy who looked really good in camp and preseason. Definitely needed development work particularly in pass blocking, but showed that electrifying speed on a few occasions. Here’s a guy with sub 4.4 speed, coming in as low as 4.35 at his pro day. Had a chance to be a terrific compliment to Zeke, who had that extra juice.
Someone had to be released when Randy Gregory was returning for those two glorious weeks. All because we have somewhere from little to nothing in the way of a pass rush. We sold out for hope that Gregory could be a difference maker before he would be sat down by the commish. It’s not that they didn’t know that another suspension was on the table. Why Jackson, who had the look of a very promising running back? Top line speed, quick twitch moves, good hands as a receiver in space were his positives. Now who were you going to release? Came down to a few names, from my seat. We had two running backs who were seeing fewer and fewer snaps with the return of McFadden, that would be Dunbar & Morris. At linebacker we had Gachkar & Nzeocha as extra bodies. Escobar was a player that we knew we wouldn’t keep but due to injuries he became the only back up to Witten and forced to keep him. If you were looking for another extra player to consider then Davon Frazier, the late round selection at safety. Add in Jackson and those were your most likely options for release.
Three players I would have viewed as untouchable would be the three young draft choices, Frazier, Jackson & Mark Nzeocha (who they’d been carrying for two years through injury). We virtually stopped playing Morris and Dunbar was rarely seen on offense. It was pretty obvious that Dunbar wouldn’t be returning this year. Right there you had players to be considered seriously versus Jackson. I get that in the discussions they probably wanted to probably keep Morris over Dunber. Meant eating Morris’s 2017 cap hit, which again points us to Dunbar. For me the first to go should have been Dunbar or Gachkar, but my guess is that Bisaccia pounded the table to keep them both for his special teams.
My understanding was that when they released Jackson the scouts pounded the same table, but in anger and frustration. They carried Jackson for 13 weeks in anticipation of the payoff in 2017. What payoff were we getting with the other RB’s once McFadden returned?
We’ll never know what Jackson may have been for us, but boy I was totally on board to find out. Worse yet, is this young man is playing for the Browns and who knows if they have a clue on how to proceed with him. When you find someone that runs sub 4.4, they’re supposed to be the last to go. The upside was exciting and I for one was willing to be patient. We’d have had a home grown speedster to pair with Zeke! The results could have been priceless!
Anyone else upset about this move?
DT …….
