Players like Josey Jewell, Akrum Wadley and Sean Welsh were most certainly going to be the focus of NFL teams when they visit Iowa City in the spring for pro day. With the emergence of Josh Jackson, he could be one of the highest priorities of these clubs.
Jackson has been outstanding in his junior season in his first full year as a starter. With the departures of Desmond King to the Chargers, and Greg Mabin currently with the 49ers.
The Hawkeye defense has gotten a huge boost from Jackson who currently leads the Big Ten in interceptions with 5. Three of which came off of JT Barrett in the Iowa win against Ohio State 55-24. The third of which was one of the highlights of the college football season:
Iowa's Josh Jackson looking like Odell Bekcham Jr. pic.twitter.com/TlU49OUyXI
— JzoSports (@JzoSports) November 4, 2017
Jackson also is second in the conference in pass deflections behind only Badgers corner Nick Nelson. Jackson may be on his way to being the third winner of the Tatum-Woodson Big Ten corner of the year award previously won by Micah Hyde and Desmond King.
More national awards might be in Jackson’s future if this dominant play continues including a possible position as a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award.
A Thorpe Award spokesperson tells me it's not unprecedented to include a finalist that wasn't a semifinalist. (Re: Iowa's Josh Jackson)
— Chad Leistikow🆑 (@ChadLeistikow) November 7, 2017
But, for Jackson who previously had not had any interest from the ‘draft experts’, is now being mentioned among the top names, if he decides to leave Iowa early.
Mel Kiper Jr on ESPN.com included Jackson for the first time on his big board as the #22 player for the 2018 draft stating:
"Jackson has been the best corner in college football this season, and he showed it picking off Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett three times in an upset win last weekend. He was phenomenal and showed off his stellar hands. Check out the athleticism on his third interception in the video above. He has five interceptions and has broken up 15 passes this season, his first as a starter. He has also pitched in on punt returns, though he hasn’t broken off any big returns."
This kind of praise is hard to avoid to be named among the top secondary prospects in the game by one of the foremost authorities on draft projections. With several more games, and a bowl game, Jackson can further that cause, and get on more draftniks radars.
Iowa has alot of freshmen and sophomore players like Michael Ojemudia, Cedric Boswell, Matt Hankins and Josh Turner who could fill the role if Jackson were to leave early. But, it is still too early to anticipate for that.
It is clearly an exciting time for Hawkeye fans to have a player emerge at a position that was thought of as a weakness heading into the 2017 season.