Louisville Football: Lamar Jackson’s 2018 NFL Draft profile

The 2018 NFL Draft features a top-heavy quarterback pool. Where will former Louisville football star Lamar Jackson land?

Louisville Cardinals quarterback Lamar Jackson served as one of the more exciting players in college football over the past two seasons. A Heisman Trophy winner and another New York visit, Jackson was seen as arguably the best player in college football by many.

Jackson “one-upped” his Heisman campaign in 2017 by posting just under 3,700 yards passing and 1,601 yards rushing — both career highs through three seasons at Louisville. He finished with 45 total touchdowns in 2017 and had a quarterback rating of 148.6, just 0.2 points lower than his sophomore Heisman year.

A mobile, run-heavy quarterback, Jackson has many reasons for NFL teams to be skeptical of his professional ability. Simply looking at previous and similar styles, only of handful of quarterbacks enjoyed illustrious and long NFL careers. Fortunately for Jackson, his ability to both run and pass well eliminates the notion that he can only be successful if he is able to run.

Strengths

Obviously, Jackson’s speed and running ability makes him the explosive and dangerous player he is. He has the ability to escape almost any kind of trouble and his field awareness to navigate not only of a sack, but down the field as well.

Jackson could very well fit into any system in the NFL as he poses as a spitting’ image of Russell Wilson, who did not have the best offensive line when he first entered the league. As someone who is agile and mobile, Jackson’s best attribute is his ability to extend plays and turn nothing into something.

Not the biggest man in the world, Jackson’s speed and agility make him very hard to tackle.

Weaknesses

A lot of times with dual-threat quarterbacks, the easy out for weaknesses is to knock on the guy’s throwing ability, yet Jackson is a very talented passer. His multi-threat usage makes him a tough guy to predict and often times opens up the offense enough where he can make a play.

The down side of Jackson’s game is when he is forced to take away his running tendencies, for instance when Louisville is down multiple scores and needs to throw the ball entirely. What makes Jackson successful is his mystery that comes with every play — the defense has no idea how he is going to try and beat them. When forced to throw, Jackson appears to be uncomfortable sitting in the pocket and tries forcing things that are not there.

Forcing Jackson to abandon one of his weapons is how teams can take him down.

Next: Latest pre-Combine NFL Mock Draft first round

Draft Expectations

With this year’s NFL Draft full of big-time quarterbacks, it is a wild card on where Jackson could fall. Think back of when Blake Bortles and Jonny Manziel were the top quarterbacks in the draft, both had the chance to go top five, but because there was not a lot of need for the position, when one got drafted the other had to wait. Jackson will certainly see several quarterbacks go before him unless someone takes a full-blown risk.

Prediction: No. 21 to the Buffalo Bills