Washington Redskins 2014 Player Profile: Tanard Jackson, Free Safety

Tanard Jackson

Free Safety

Syracuse

Round 4, Pick 106

Twitter Handle: @Tanard_Jackson

2014 Outlook:

This marks the third chance the Washington Redskins have given to Free Safety Tanard Jackson. We, as fans, have seen very little of Tanard these past three years, due to multiple suspensions from banned illegal substances, most notably marijuana. Tanard Jackson has a very big hill to climb. This offseason the Redskins brought in former Steelers and Redskins safety Ryan Clark for some much needed consistency and veteran leadership.  Plus we have a fair amount of young safeties that the Redskins are hoping will make the next step to help the team. I don’t see the coaching staff having  a positive or negative effect on Tanard. He hasn’t tackled consistently during his pro career, and this is something that the Redskins badly need in the backfield.

Roster Bubble: Cut before Opening Day

Tanard Jackson seems to be a changed man. Here is a guy who grew up in Maryland and watched the Redskins growing up. He genuinely seems to want to make the 53 man roster. He will have a tough test with the new coaching staff to see where he fits on this team in order to generate some success. I don’t think he is going to be able to crack the 53 man roster, but he definitely has come far from being suspended by the NFL. Tanard Jackson finally wants to play football, and the coaches have noted his conditioning is better than expected.  The real test will be when training camp and the preseason starts, and he is tasked with tackling people consistently.  Over 2 years is a long time to be out of the NFL and make a comeback for anyone.  The defensive coaches love him, will that be enough to make the team?