Two days after the Bears defeated the Lions on Thanksgiving Day for their fifth-straight victory, Khalil Mack went to Twitter and quote tweeted four letters: DPOY
The acronym stands for Defensive Player of the Year, which Mack won in 2016.
Except that prestigious award wasn’t directed to himself. It was actually for his teammate – Eddie Jackson.
The second-year player out of Alabama, whose draft stock plummeted from potential first-round pick to the fourth round, where the Bears selected him, due to a broken leg that ended his senior season, has become one of the best safeties in the NFL.
The thing that makes Jackson special is his instincts, which is something that head coach Matt Nagy talked about on the Bears Coaches Show on WBBM NewRadio 780 AM and 105.9 FM on Monday night.
And since Jackson was drafted in 2017, those instincts have surfaced. In Jackson’s young career, he has five defensive touchdowns. That is three more than any defensive player in that time span according to Fox Sports: NFL’s tweet.
What Jackson is doing this season is remarkable, but could he actually be the DPOY like Mack was referring to?
Here is how Jackson compares to the previous five safeties that have won the award.
Jackson still has five games to add to his totals and has some favorable matchups to end the season. Although the Giants have only turned the ball over 12 times this season, Eli Manning has a tendency to throw some risky passes, and that could lead to some prime opportunities for Jackson.
In Week 15, the Bears will head to San Francisco to face the 49ers, who are tied for the third-most turnovers this season with 22.
And to end the 2018 regular season, the Bears will play the Minnesota Vikings for the second time. The Vikings are tied for ninth with 16 turnovers, and Jackson had a pick-6 in the fourth quarter against Kirk Cousins in the first meeting between the two teams.
With how Jackson is playing this season and the potential to further enhance his stats, Mack might be right about Jackson being the sixth safety in NFL history to be named the DPOY.
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