Razorbacks Football: 2017 Signees That Play In Year One

Koilan Jackson, son of Arkansas native and radio broadcaster Keith Jackson, is an in-state talent that many are saying is underrated. Not underrated in the sense that he’s a little better than fans might think. No, some sports analysts are saying he could be the best player in this class.

There’s some serious offensive talent coming in with this 2017 so for anyone who studies the game professionally to say that he could be the best is big time. So what makes him so good?

Well, it all starts with his ability to run routes. You can have the athleticism of Randy Moss and be a bad receiver because you can’t run a simple slant or post. Watching the film, it looks like Jackson is solid on his fundamentals from the line to the point of contact with the ball.

Related Story: Update: NSD Live Tracker and Early Enrollees

What he excels at, however, is his yards after the catch. Much like I was talking about how a DB has to be able to take smart angles to make a play on the ball carrier, so do the receivers. Koilan takes really intelligent routes that make it a challenge for the DBs to get to him.

Also what I am seeing is that he has a great ability to move the ball through traffic. Yeah, he is a pretty large guy, 6-2, 210 lbs, but it’s not his size that is creating the additional yardage or in some case positive yardage from behind the line. It’s his great eyes and feet that allow him to find the lanes that will get the largest gain.

So is Jackson some sort of hybrid that reads the lanes like Collins and is as solid down field as Drew Morgan? We will see when he takes the field, but one thing I can tell you is that the more I watch his film, the more I think he may be the sleeper of ’17.