In drafting Donovan Jackson with the 24th-overall pick, the Minnesota Vikings have completely revamped their interior offensive line in a single offseason. Gone are Ed Ingram and Garrett Bradbury, in come Will Fries, Ryan Kelly, and Jackson. Blake Brandel will likely “compete” with Jackson, but will likely lose and either be pushed to LT to cover for Christian Darrisaw as he returns from injury, fill in at LG while Jackson does the same, or be pushed to the bench.
Jackson, a three-year starter at Ohio State, ended up finishing the Buckeyes’ National Championship season as the team’s left tackle after starting out as the team’s left guard. He filled in admirably for Josh Simmons, a fellow first-round pick, but obviously projects as Minnesota’s left guard, given the presence of Darrisaw.
Still, Jackson’s performance at LT against the best competition college football had to offer throughout the CFB playoffs is a point in his favor. At 6’3 5/8″, 315 lbs. with 33.5″ arms, he’s slightly shorter and has smaller arms than an ideal tackle. That means you don’t want to play him there full-time in the NFL. However, as I alluded to above, the flexibility could benefit the Vikings as they wait for Darrisaw to recover from injuring multiple ligaments in his knee.
Minnesota’s decision to take Jackson was interesting, but the goal of this article is not to discuss the team’s other options at that spot. I went to the tape to see what Jackson brings to the table for the Vikings, finding his strengths and seeing what the team can do to improve on his weaknesses to put the best possible offensive line on the field to protect J.J. McCarthy. I was able to watch three of Jackson’s games at LG — Iowa, Nebraska, and Oregon — and four games at LT — Penn State, Tennessee, Oregon (in the playoffs), and Notre Dame. Here’s what I found.
pass protection
As a pass protector, Jackson clearly can mirror defenders with his lower half. The play below is a great rep with Jackson lined up at LG. You can see him move his lower half to stay in front of the defender at all times during the pass pro rep:
This also showed up on stunts, where he did a good job of mirroring defenders. On the play below, he helped his LT by getting a hand on the DT rushing upfield, then recognized the stunt and had a very athletic transition back inside to stonewall the stunting edge:
At tackle, he struggled mightily in his first game against Abdul Carter, who became the No. 3 pick in this year’s draft. Carter might need some polish, but he has elite athletic traits and beat Jackson with his rare upfield explosiveness.
The game also puts his ability to recover inside against athletes on the edge in question. On this rep, he struggled to mirror a spin from Carter.
That’s not to say Jackson can’t hold up in protection on the edge. During Ohio State’s run through the playoffs, he was a lockdown against almost every edge rusher he faced. To an extent, you can excuse his game against Carter since it was his first exposure at LT. Still, despite facing high-level competition, including some reps against Tennessee’s James Pearce Jr., who went two picks after Jackson, he didn’t have much exposure to elite edge prospects like Carter.
This coming season, the Vikings will face edge rushers like Myles Garrett, Micah Parsons, T.J. Watt, Aidan Hutchinson, Trey Hendrickson, Montez Sweat, and Carter. I would be very concerned with asking Jackson to block those players one-on-one. To be clear, this is also true of most starting tackles in the NFL, players of Darrisaw’s caliber being the exception.
I raise this concern not because I think it will impact Jackson’s ability to play guard in the NFL, nor because I think it’s a bad idea to give him a shot to fill in for Darrisaw if he misses time. Instead, it’s to drive home the point that I don’t think Jackson is the kind of player who can play tackle, a more valuable position, long-term. The fact that he played tackle well in college is a positive aspect of his profile as a prospect. However, he’s a guard in the NFL, possibly a really good one. Making him a true tackle would be a risk with a greater chance of ruining him than succeeding.
Here’s a really nice, smooth pass pro rep and good anchor from Jackson against a wide-9 rusher from Notre Dame in the National Championship game. Jackson’s ability to flex outside to block edge rushers has great value because it allows you to make the best out of a bad situation as a short-term fill-in at LT, either in the middle of a game or for a couple of games.
One issue I think Jackson has — and I think this is more of a technique problem than anything — is that he can sometimes get sluggish with his lower half. That leads to problems mirroring where he gives up half of his body to a defender, which puts a defensive lineman in a compromised position. I’ll show run-game examples later, but this is a good example in the pass game against Tennessee.
I would even term the play below as a win for Jackson. He has a good pass set and stays engaged when the edge defender tries to shed him to the outside. However, his feet are late to come along with him as he blocks the shed outside, which means the defender can transition back inside and disengage. That’s all away from the QB, which is why the block is still a win. However, torqueing defenders like this instead of staying in good position with your base can lead to sheds, leading to defeats and holding calls because you often still have a hold on the defender’s jersey while he tries to move away from you.
Jackson anchors really well, even against bigger players. He has a good hop technique to stonewall defenders, even against a player like the massive, 6’5″, 336 lb. Yahya Black.
Jackson puts his body and a nice angle with good pad level to provide himself leverage when anchoring against a bull rush. This also worked against a shorter but similarly large player in the 6’2″, 332 lb. Jamaree Caldwell.
Jackson uses his hands well as a pass protector. He can win the hand fight and consistently resets into controlling his opponent’s chest, like he does on the play below.
I also like Jackson’s grip strength in pass pro. He stays glued to defenders’ chests and makes it difficult for them to disengage.
Overall, I’m very bullish on Donovan Jackson‘s ability as a pass protector. I think he has the movement skills, technique, and strength to be an excellent pass protector at the NFL level. I may have spent a lot of words talking about a couple of nitpicks I had and the implications for him at the NFL level due to those limitations, but don’t let that dissuade you. I think Jackson can be an excellent pass protector at guard and an acceptable pass protector at tackle in a pinch.
Run game
As a run blocker, Jackson plays with good leverage and drives his feet on contact with defenders. That can lead to good knockback, pushing the defender downfield. The play below is an excellent example.
Jackson has pop with his hands on doubles and the movement to get up to second-level defenders and block them after helping out on a double team. Check out this play below against Penn State.
Here’s another example against Tennessee:
Still, Jackson could fail to drive back larger defenders. On the rep below against Yahya Black, he got stood up at the point of attack and allowed Black to disengage and tackle the ball carrier.
Jackson obviously struggled against Carter in pass protection, but his struggles against Black led to my biggest concern for his transition to the next level. He couldn’t get consistent movement, and rarely got movement at all, in the run game against the larger defenders he faced, including Black, Caldwell, and Nebraska’s Ty Robinson.
In those reps, Jackson had trouble sustaining good position and staying engaged with his hands, getting knocked off by a move from his opponent to shed the blocks. He actually stayed on blocks pretty well against Caldwell but had a couple of losses against Robinson and really struggled against Black, as the compilation below shows.
The good news is all three of these players were drafted — Caldwell in the third, Robinson in the fourth, and Black in the fifth. As nose tackle-types with limited pass-rush upside, that’s the range some of the best run stuffers at DT in the NFL have gone. A man that size with good technique is hard to block effectively in the run game, whether you’re in college or the NFL, so I hope that the jump in level of competition doesn’t exacerbate the struggles.
Jackson may not be an elite-level people mover in the NFL, but I think there’s a chance he’s good at it. Being able to move players who are that large consistently is rare, even among the best linemen in the NFL, so it’s okay that it doesn’t seem to be a part of Jackson’s skill set. The bigger question I have is how often he got shed by Black, and what that means for his ability to sustain blocks. He needs to improve in that area, or it could lead to issues running the ball.
Another technique issue Jackson needs to clean up is the fact that his hands sometimes end up wide, outside of a defender’s frame. This didn’t get called at the college level; only two flags were thrown on him in 2025. However, the way he gets underneath the defender’s shoulder pads, outside of the shoulder, on the play below might lead to a hold at the NFL level if the defender disengages. I’ve already discussed a similar issue in pass protection above, which also exists in the run game.
Outside of those concerns, Jackson is really strong as a run blocker. He has good, but probably not elite movement skills. This will allow him to succeed in Minnesota’s run game, where he will be asked to execute zone concepts. On the play below, he reaches an Iowa player who steps in the same direction as he does at the snap.
Here’s another good rep where he reaches a 0t, which is a more difficult ask. Caldwell’s initial step plays into his hands a little, but this happens on many zone reps, and Caldwell doesn’t make it easy by turning up field. This is a quality first step by Jackson and good movement of a large player laterally and backwards.
He did this at tackle, too, with a nice LT-TE combo below to reach a DE.
When releasing to the second level, Jackson does a good job of finding his targets. You can see that in the couple of plays above, where he got significant drive on a combo block and then moved to the second level. However, you can also see it on plays where he had freer releases. Here’s another combo into a pancake block, a fun rep.
On this play, Jackson didn’t need to give much help against the defensive line, but he did need to get to the LB, which he did very effectively.
Here was a more difficult assignment that he did just as well.
He also showed the ability to do this in the screen game against safeties. I have full confidence in Jackson’s movement skills.
The Vikings have revamped their offensive line to be more physical, which likely means more pulling. Jackson is proficient pulling in the run game. His movement skills work to his advantage, and he gets to his spot well, blocking with good leverage, like on this pin-and-pull.
Jackson consistently gets to his spot on pulls, and puts himself in good position, but sometimes lacks the knockback you’d like to see from a more powerful player, like on the rep below.
Ultimately, Jackson is a solid run blocker at the NFL level. He’s got good athleticism and consistently gets to the spot he’s supposed to be. He can effectively execute reach blocks in a zone scheme and down blocks in a gap scheme. On doubles, he does a good job of combo blocking and then working to block a second-level defender.
Jackson uses good leg drive, gets a solid push on doubles, and when single blocking against smaller defenders. He understands body positioning and regularly puts himself in good position to clear a lane for the runner. However, he struggled to get push and position against his largest opponents. Jackson was also inconsistent with his ability to sustain blocks against those larger defenders, and even smaller players at the second level who were able to shed him.
He may not be the most powerful player in the world, but Jackson’s power is fine. With the Vikings, he’s set up by being surrounded by powerful players, and the rest of his skills in run blocking are good enough that he should be a positive asset in the ground game.
Mental Processing/Physicality
In my opinion, Jackson processes the game at a very high level. He was extremely consistent in recognizing and passing off stunts, with very active eyes and an instinctive feel for the rushes he was facing. Here, he ends up affecting the crashing player twice because he blocks the looper through him:
Winning mentally as an offensive lineman is about consistency, and that’s exactly what Jackson shows. Here’s a good compilation of his stunt pass-offs.
Another point in Jackson’s favor is his ability as a finisher. He had an impressive number of pancakes in the game I watched, and often finished on top of defenders. He executes his assignments through the whistle, looks for work in the passing game, pushes and pulls the pile in the run game, and doesn’t give up on plays. These are positives, but they are also, in my opinion, prerequisites for a player to be good in the NFL.
Conclusion
Donovan Jackson is an extremely aware player who finishes plays well. He has active eyes and good instincts to sniff out stunts, and correctly identifies targets through a changing picture in the run game. He’s a competitive player who finishes plays and has several pancakes.
Jackson shone as a pass protector and guard. He has good athleticism to mirror defenders, a strong anchor, and good hand-fighting technique. He was even a quality pass protector as a tackle, although the best edge rusher in the draft gave him problems.
As a run blocker, Jackson has great athletic tools, if not elite, to execute any type of run block you might ask him to. He is good at reaching defenders, pulling, and targeting second-level defenders while climbing. When engaged, he shows good leg drive to push defenders backward, although he might get stonewalled by the biggest defenders. Jackson can have some issues sustaining blocks and will sometimes have poor hand positioning that could lead to holds in the NFL. As it is, he’s a solid run blocker for the NFL level with room to improve.
For the Vikings, Jackson will slot in as their starting left guard and should easily beat out Blake Brandel for that spot. He may have to take a detour to left tackle first, assuming Christian Darrisaw isn’t able to start Week 1 as he recovers from injury. Still, once Darrisaw returns, Jackson should settle in and become a strong contributor to what should be one of the best lines in the NFL after this offseason’s additions. Get ready to see Darrisaw-Jackson-Kelly-Fries-O’Neill in action, because it should be a lot of fun.
