Eagles agree to terms with Adoree’ Jackson, giving them a starting cornerback candidate
Jackson, who spent the last four seasons with the New York Giants, could compete for the starting spot at cornerback after the Eagles released Darius Slay.
The Eagles are bringing a veteran cornerback into the fold, agreeing to terms on a one-year deal with Adoree’ Jackson, a league source confirmed to The Inquirer on Thursday night.
Jackson, who turns 30 in September, brings eight seasons of NFL experience to a young corps of Eagles cornerbacks. Between his first four years with the Tennessee Titans and another four with the New York Giants, Jackson has started 82 of his 97 NFL games.
Given his experience, Jackson figures to have the opportunity to compete for the starting outside cornerback role that was vacated by Darius Slay, who was released at the start of the new league year and signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kelee Ringo, the Eagles’ fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft out of Georgia, is likely also in the mix for the job.
Last season, the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Jackson served as a depth outside cornerback behind Deonte Banks and Cor’Dale Flott in the Giants defense. He started five games and finished the season with five pass breakups, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and 28 tackles.
Before the 2024 season, Jackson was a three-year starter for the Giants, bringing positional versatility to play either on the boundary or in the slot. He is well-acquainted with Jalen Hurts — Jackson earned his first-career pick-six against the Eagles quarterback in their 2023 Week 16 matchup.
Although he never played all 17 games in each of those three seasons for the Giants (13 in 2021, 10 in 2022, 14 in 2023), he was productive relative to his teammates in that span. From 2021-23, Jackson ranked second among Giants defensive backs with 23 pass breakups, trailing safety Xavier McKinney.
Jackson also has experience returning punts and kicks at the NFL level, though he hasn’t done either in a game since 2022.
The Eagles have plenty of familiarity with Jackson, not just because he played for a divisional opponent for four years. During the 2021 offseason after he was released by the Titans, Jackson was reportedly set to visit the facilities of both the Giants and the Eagles. However, he ended up accepting the Giants’ three-year, $39 million offer before he ever set foot in the NovaCare Complex.
Jackson was the Titans’ No. 18 overall pick in the 2017 draft out of Southern California. The draft that year was held in Philadelphia, with the Eagles taking defensive end Derek Barnett just four picks before Jackson came off the board.
At the time, Jackson was a highly touted college athlete with experience as a cornerback, wide receiver, and return specialist. In 2016, his final season at USC, he earned the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back and the Jet Award as the nation’s top return specialist.
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He sustained that success into his rookie season with the Titans, which was statistically his best year to date. Jackson started all 16 games in 2017 and posted a career-best and a team-high 17 pass breakups. He also finished the year with a career-high three forced fumbles.
With Slay and James Bradberry no longer on the Eagles roster, Jackson is slated to become the oldest and most experienced among a young group of Eagles cornerbacks headlined by Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. Jackson isn’t the player he was at the start of his career, but he still has the opportunity to compete for a role in the defense come training camp.
The Eagles defense — including the secondary — is undergoing a bit of a remodeling in the aftermath of the Super Bowl, highlighted by the departures of key players such as Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Isaiah Rodgers, and Oren Burks in free agency. C.J. Gardner-Johnson was traded to the Houston Texans on Tuesday.