Why Tre' Jackson Has Everything to Prove in New England Patriots Training Camp

Understandably, most New England Patriots fans will focus their attention on the defense during training camp.  It's the side of the ball where the Pats lost four starters, after all, including 60 percent of their nickel package secondary personnel.

But while the offense's continuity won't generate as many headlines (setting aside the Tom Brady saga, of course), one prominent hole does exist in the starting lineup.  Though the Pats may have spackled together an interior offensive line last season capable of avoiding self-destruction, that does not mean they have found an adequate replacement for former All-Pro left guard Logan Mankins.

Dan Connolly certainly wasn't spectacular in Mankins' stead, but the heady vet provided a fail-safe option that got the offense through the season.  Following Connolly's retirement, though, the Patriots could be facing a bevy of suboptimal solutions.

Enter Tre' Jackson, a fourth-round rookie with Week 1 starting potential given his extensive starting experience at Florida State.  Jackson claims the knee issues that caused him to slip to Day 3 are in the rearview mirror, but is it reasonable to expect him to seize the left guard spot in training camp?  Looking at the film, stats and surrounding personnel, let's look at the player who could address the biggest issue on New England's offense.

Switching Sides

In a relatively nondescript guard class, Jackson falling to the fourth round might stand out as one of the better values.  Both NFL.com and NFL Draft Scout projected the Florida State product as a Round 2 to Round 3 prospect, but reported failed physicals likely caused a pro-ready Day 2 prospect to slip to Day 3.

We'll address those potential health issues in a second, but let's focus on Jackson's on-field value for a second.  The most obvious problem with penciling him as a starting left guard is that Jackson has never actually played the position.  In a post-draft press conference, Bill Belichick specifically noted how Florida State kept him pinned on the right side of the line:

Of course, that doesn't mean he can't learn to move to the left side, as most NFL offensive linemen possess multi-positional versatility.  Moreover, the Patriots wouldn't ask Jackson to move to center or tackle, so the transition wouldn't require him to overhaul his technique, but rather to learn how to mirror his old technique from the left side.  Playing left guard wouldn't be a totally foreign concept, either; according to CBS Boston, Jackson claims he entered college on the left side before the Seminoles asked him to flip sides.

Thus, Jackson is likely a pro-ready run-blocker who would fit nicely in a New England system that has become increasingly power-based under Dave DeGuglielmo.  At 6'4" and 330 pounds, Jackson fits the larger prototype that DeGuglielmo has ostensibly sought out during his two offseasons as offensive line coach.  Indeed, Jackson had a penchant for sealing off defenders in the running game, consistently exhibiting excellent lower body strength:

Source: Draft Breakdown

Source: Draft Breakdown

Source: Draft Breakdown

You can't really tell from stills, but each of those screenshots also shows Jackson executing a different type of run-blocking scheme (from top to bottom: gap block, pull block and down block on a zone run).  Such versatility is an invaluable trait for a Patriots offense that will still utilize the zone run occasionally, especially out of hurry-up sets.  Although he'll face stronger interior defenders in the NFL, Jackson already has enough sand in his pants to mix things up, especially when he locks his arms in the defender's frame.

Run blocking as been a known commodity with Jackson for two years now.  But that doesn't really get to the burning question: Does Jackson have the stamina and quickness to hold up in pass protection?  After all, pro offenses aren't ground-bound anymore, and a Patriots rookie sure as hell isn't seeing the field if he isn't ready to protect No. 12.

I wish there were more cut-ups of Jackson's senior year game tape—the invaluable site Draft Breakdown provides only one game from 2014, Florida State's season-opener against Oklahoma State.  In that game and others in general, I noticed Jackson sometimes got himself in trouble by being slow off the snap.  It seems logical to draw a connection between this lethargy, his knee injury and his much-maligned conditioning issues that plagued his senior season.

Source: Draft Breakdown

Jackson rarely ended up on his knees like he does in the screenshot above, but part of that stems from his superior strength at the college level.  With behemoths like Ndamukong Suh, Muhammad Wilkerson and Marcell Dareus lurking in the AFC East alone, it's safe to say that Jackson won't have the same margin for error when he loses the leverage battle at the pro level.

A slimmed-down Jackson isn't likely to provide plus pass protection right away.  But coupled with his run-blocking skills, could average pass-blocking be enough to give Jackson the leg up on the rest of the competition?

The Competition

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

If not Jackson, then who?  Patriots fans would point to fellow fourth-rounder Shaq Mason as a potential left guard alternative, since rookies are still enjoying their honeymoon phase with team fanbases. 

In fairness, Mason might be even more pro-ready as a run-blocker than Jackson.  The collegiate center excelled in Georgia Tech's throwback triple-option offense, causing NFL.com's Lance Zierlein to label him, "one of the most powerful drive blockers in the 2015 draft."  Belichick had similarly strong praise for Mason's powerful road grading after the draft:

Of course, the rub with Mason is his pass-blocking, which is a virtual 180 from his work in the running game.  Playing in Tech's rudimentary passing system hardly prepares a lineman for the NFL, and WEEI's Christopher Price suggests that Mason could experience a slower integration, much like the one Cameron Fleming experienced last season:

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The questions for the fourth-round pick out of Georgia Tech lie with his pass-blocking skills...at this point in his development he’s raw. As a result, the technique and footwork that comes with consistently working in pass protection at the NFL level could present something of a learning curve for the 6-foot-1, 310-pounder.

In a perfect world, perhaps Mason follows the same rookie path as Cameron Fleming, also a fourth-round pick last season out of Stanford. While Fleming was mostly a tackle who worked as an extra tight end on occasion — he also played some right guard — his presence in the lineup usually signaled a run-heavy approach for the Patriots.

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Mason did purportedly show enough technique development at the Senior Bowl to convince Belichick to take the plunge, but it's hard to imagine him surpassing Jackson right now despite some very appealing traits.  If we cross Mason off the list for Week 1, Pats fans might not like the alternatives.

Elsa/Getty Images

Jordan Devey and Josh Kline combined to start eight games at the guard spots last year, but both were disastrous.  Both posted 94.1 percent or worse marks in Pro Football Focus' pass-blocking efficiency metric—if either had played enough snaps to qualify (at least 25 percent), that would have placed them no better than 73rd out of 77 qualifiers.

Nevertheless, ESPN Boston's Mike Reiss penciled Kline in as the starting left guard in his pre-camp projections, though he did see both as roster bubble players in a separate piece.  Of the two, Devey would seem like the more intriguing option.  The third-year pro played tackle in college, and at 6'6" and 320 pounds, possesses more size than any other New England interior linemen (for comparison, both Nate Solder and Sebastian Vollmer stand at 6'8" and 325 pounds).

There's also one other possibility few seem to be considering at the moment: Why can't Ryan Wendell play left guard?  No one envisioned Wendell at right guard before he made the positional switch out of necessity, and after Jackson's selection, some Patriots reporters speculated about a move to the left side.

Unfortunately, Wendell's placement on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list means that we won't be able to glean Belichick's thought process on this possible transition until Wendell returns to the field.  Even then, it's easy to envision Belichick shuffling through guard combinations like hoodies, tossing out different duos until he finds a snug fit.

Bottom Line

The title of this piece is sort of self-fulfilling—every rookie, from Jameis Winston to Gerald Christian, has something to prove at this juncture.  And as the previous section illustrates, Jackson is probably on equal footing with a group of interior linemen just as unproven as himself.

In truth, even a Day 3 draft pedigree hasn't proven burdensome recently.  In the last 10 years alone, 25 rookie guards selected in Round 4 or later (included undrafted rookies) have started at least half their team's games, per Pro-Football-Reference.  The list includes future All-Pros Jahri Evans and Carl Nicks, as well as players like Ben Jones, Brian De La Puente and Kevin Boothe who have been regular starters for much of their careers.

That alone doesn't guarantee Jackson anything, of course—it's notable that no one on the list played for the Patriots—but it does reflect how mid- to late-round guards seem to earn more immediate playing time than most other positions.  And though he's not a guard, Jackson's collegiate teammate Bryan Stork started 11 regular-season games as a fourth-rounder last year and appears entrenched at center for the foreseeable future.

Whenever Brady does take the field, the Patriots have all the makings of an elite offensive unit.  Left guard currently stands out as the sour grape in an otherwise pristine bunch, but Jackson might be the player best equipped to remedy that issue—if he survives his first pro training camp.