Position: Guard
Ht/Wt: 6-4, 312
College: Ohio State
Experience: Rookie
Outlook: The Lions traded up in the third round to get Jackson, who is expected to compete right away for a starting spot at right guard.
Jackson played over 1,000 snaps last year for the Buckeyes and was one of their best offensive linemen. He's a terrific athlete, and was very good as both a run and pass blocker. He allowed just one sack all last year for the Buckeyes.
The Lions are looking for a new starter at right guard to replace Graham Glasgow (Denver), and after splitting reps with the first-team offense to begin training camp, Jackson has taken more of the reps there with the starters the last few practices. It's looking like he has a leg up on the rest of the competition early on to be the starting right guard between center Frank Ragnow and right tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai.
Practice report: It was a competitive padded practice for the Lions Sunday with a lot of good situational work. Right away when you sit and watch Jackson, you see the athleticism and quick feet for a player his size. He stonewalled fellow rookie Julian Okwara in space in a team period, and was part of a rep that got his fellow offensive teammates excited, when the offense stood up a blitzing and stunting defensive front seven to allow quarterback Matthew Stafford to sit in the pocket and deliver a pass. It's not often we hear hoots and hollers for offensive line play.
Veteran defensive end Trey Flowers got the better of Jackson in one team rep after Flowers had moved inside to the three technique in a particular package. Flowers is a technician, and he got inside Jackson, forcing the rookie to hold him. It was a good learning moment for Jackson.
Overall, Jackson doesn't look overwhelmed at all. He moves good and anchors well. He's coming along nicely through camp.
Quotable: "Just in general with Jonah, I would say, he is a guy that is very mature, he studies extremely hard, nothing really kind of fazes him," Lions head coach Matt Patricia said.
"I think even just the move from Rutgers to Ohio State is something where he's handled transition before. So for him this is just another transition into a new team and trying to learn everybody really quick. So I think he's done a really good job with that stuff."
