When the New York Giants signed free agent cornerback Adoree’ Jackson to a three-year, $39 million deal in March of 2021, many general managers and executives around the NFL were furious. They said the Giants paid way too much for Jackson and his contract would skew the cornerback market.
Jackson, a first-round pick (18th overall in 2017) by the Tennessee Titans who by many standards did not play up to his pedigree, was coming off a season-ending knee injury. His $8 million fifth-year option was dropped by the Titans.
The market for Jackson should have been around $5 million per year but the Giants saw some reason to give him $13 million per.
That’s all ancient history now. Jackson was paired with Pro Bowler James Bradberry last season as the Giants’ No. 2 corner. The duo was very effective.
Then, the Giants decided to go in a different direction in their front office. New general manager Joe Schoen had to make major cuts to the roster to get under the salary cap. Bradberry was one of those cuts, thrusting Jackson into the top corner role.
This season, with Wink Martindale as the team’s defensive coordinator, the secondary has been charged with becoming the heart of the defense. Jackson, the veteran, is leading the charge and leading by example.
In Sunday’s last-second victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the other three starting members of the secondary made the game-saving stop on the one yard-line as time ran out. Jackson was asked about his perspective on the play.
“Just knowing that the guys that we have on our team were on a relentless pursuit,” he said. “I saw him catch the ball. I saw about four or five of our players running towards the ball trying to stop him and stop his momentum. I think we did a great job of doing that.”
The Giants won for the sixth time in the first seven games. Jackson has been deep into the playoffs before in his career with the Titans but knows there’s no time to celebrate — yet.
“I think it’s pretty easy not to look too far ahead. I remember talking to Jelly, (Justin Ellis) about when he was in Baltimore and they started off 8-2, and they didn’t make the playoffs,” he said. “To have that in perspective and understand that it doesn’t really matter how you start; it’s really about how you finish. That year that we did go to the conference championship, I think we started out like 2-5. You just never know how this league may go. It’s hard to get wins. It’s hard to collect them. We’re just trying to keep stacking those wins and keep coming into work each day and trying to get better.”
Jackson and his mates are making stands every week and the league is shocked. He knows the key from here on in is to put their heads down and keep plugging away.
“It’s just about playing the game within the game, understanding just do your job and don’t do anything outside of that realm,” he said. “So, for us, just go out there and execute our assignments. At the end of the day, just play your technique and play your game and let the rest play out itself.”
