ASHBURN — William Jackson III is generally a soft-spoken man, on and off the field. But those who listen closely have picked up a difference lately. This summer, the Washington cornerback is mixing in a little training-camp trash talk after making plays.
“I’m actually having fun,” Jackson said with a grin. “I got my swagger back.”
Jackson’s swagger includes extending more high-fives to teammates and upping his energy on the field. He’s even turned up the volume on his wardrobe, wearing some brightly colored combinations off the field. After practice Saturday, the 29-year-old dawned a yellow top to pair with his yellow durag. The reason for yellow? “I just think I look cute in it,” he laughed.
The uptick in confidence is a welcome change for the Commanders — and a sign that Jackson is starting to fit in. Last year, Jackson had a rough debut season after signing a three-year, $40.5 million contract. Jackson was the team’s splashy free-agent addition, but the former Cincinnati Bengal struggled to adapt from being primarily a man-to-man corner to Washington’s zone-based scheme.
But there was a turning point for Jackson last season, one that helped him get off to a strong start for this year’s training camp. Around Week 10 — when Washington pulled off a remarkable upset over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Jackson began feeling comfortable with what coaches were asking him to do. Perhaps not coincidentally, the cornerback picked off quarterback Tom Brady in the victory. The interception, the result of a pop-up forced by safety Kam Curl, was an indicator that Jackson could be effective as he adjusted to a new scheme.
From that point, coach Ron Rivera noticed a difference whenever he turned on Jackson’s film. He could tell, he said, that the defensive back was starting to trust teammates and hand off receivers in coverage — requirements for Washington’s defense.
“He kind of started to understand that it, it wasn’t just, ‘Hey, this is my guy, and I’m gonna run with him all over the field,’” Rivera said. “What we were trying to get him to understand … was that when I lock on a guy, but yet I gotta pass him off, it gives me an opportunity to play with my eyes.”
Jackson went on to play in only five more games last season before his campaign was cut short because of a calf injury and COVID-19. The stretch prior to his three-game absence wasn’t enough to fully redeem a season of struggles, but it was enough to take some of the pressure off of fans comparing him to Josh Norman — another high-profile signing who rarely seemed to find his footing in Washington.
This offseason, Rivera closely watched to see how the cornerback would respond to the adversity. There’s a “mental aspect” of coming back from a down year, Rivera said, and so he’d look at Jackson’s body language in practice.
Rivera said he could see how close Jackson was on a few plays to generating a turnover — and how that fired up Jackson afterward.
“That’s kind of a neat thing because you know he’s challenging himself,” Rivera said.
With an average annual salary of $13.5 million, Jackson is the Commanders’ highest-paid cornerback. Despite the salary, Rivera said the Commanders don’t place an emphasis on him to be a traditional No. 1 corner. In the team’s defense, he said, the goal is to play the matchups depending on the coverages.
That’s fine with Jackson, who said he doesn’t care about being seen as the Commanders’ No. 1. All the pieces in the secondary work together, he added.
These days, Jackson is starting to work with the rest of the group in sync. After last season ended, the former first-rounder went back to rewatch his performances and analyze his mistakes. He had to be his toughest critic, even if that meant he occasionally got down on himself in the process.
Asked if he ever had to remind himself he still belonged in the league, Jackson quickly clarified that his confidence never got that low. “Hell no,” he said.
“I still feel like I was that guy, but it was foreign to me last year, everything was new,” Jackson said. “Coming from a different scheme, different things, it’s new to you. So now that I heard it over and over and over, I feel comfortable.”
Yellow shirts, trash-talking and all.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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