Georgia Tech Football Recruiting: Jackets flip Jaylen Jackson from Cincinnati

Georgia Tech Football has landed commitment #18 from Brunswick, Georgia native, and three-star athete Jaylen Jackson.

According to several reports, the Georgia Tech football program has landed their 18th commitment in the  2018 recruiting class. The commitment comes from athlete Jaylen Jackson, who was committed to Cincinnati prior to Sunday. Jackson stands at 6-foot-0 and 182-pounds and has been an athlete for Brunswick High School, playing cornerback, free safety, and wide receiver.

Jackson’s lead recruiter according to 247Sports was Jackets co-running backs coach Lamar Owens. Owens also landed a commitment this year from 3-star running back Dontae Smith.

On Friday evening, we discussed recruits that could potentially help round out the Jackets recruiting cycle. Jackson was on that list but we were unsure if he was going to get an offer from the Jackets coaching staff as well as if he was able to get to The Flats this weekend. Well, Jackson did make it to campus and earned his offer. The rest is history as Jackson flipped his commitment to the Jackets.

Jackson is a three-star recruit by 247Sports composite rankings and is as the 173rd best cornerback in the country and 176th best player in the state of Georgia. In addition to his offers from Tech and Cincinnati, Jackson had an offer from Wake Forest.

The Georgia native runs a 4.5 forty-yard dash and a 4.1 shuttle. Both numbers are relatively decent numbers for secondary members but are certainly not great either. Jackson will need to make up his lack of speed with athleticism, footwork, and technique.

Jackson’s Tape:

Jackson may not have elite speed but his highlight tape certainly shows his athleticism which will help him at the next level. His first two highlights, show off his ability to get after balls, making two great athletic plays, one on offense and defense.  His soft hands along with his athleticism could make him a dangerous piece of a secondary

Jackson appears to have solid ball tracking skills, being able to adjust extremely well to wherever the football is thrown. His tape also showed off his ability in man-to-man coverage, playing pretty tight coverage throughout as a cornerback.

As a safety, Jackson seemed to find himself in the right position to make a play while floating around in coverage.  The one thing that is omitted from Jackson’s senior tape is his tackling abilities. A quick look at his junior tape shows that Jackson is a hard hitter and a rather decent tackler overall.

Overall, Jackson’s tapes show that he definitely has the potential to be a strong member of the Jackets secondary in the future.

Next: Georgia Tech Football Recruiting: Who will round out the Jackets 2018 recruiting class?

That being said, every recruit is ranked where they are for a reason, a highlight tape is just that, highlights. Without seeing him in person, it’s hard to say where Jackson’s deficiencies are in his game. With all that and as said before, Jackson has the skills to be a quality member of the Jackets secondary in a year or two.