Jackson Powers-Johnson, C, Oregon (Junior)

JPJ Article

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Strengths
:

  • explosiveness
  • Few mistakes in angles when taking on blocks
  • Age
  • Really interesting in Zone blocks
  • Good 'Nasty' side

 

Weaknesses :

  • Sometimes plays too high
  • Tends to release blocks too quickly
  • Slight lack of power
  • Tends to rush into second-level blocks
  • Needs work on his Snaps
  • Little impact on his first step
  • Significant work needed on his Footwork

TTProfil

 
Jackson Powers-Johnson, or JPJ, is one of the most prominent IOL prospects in the upcoming draft class. While it's true that he has qualities that could interest many franchises, he is still a young player who needs to develop in order to reach the level of top-tier OLs in the league. As you will see in the scouting report, the strengths section may seem scarce, but it's his weaknesses that are more interesting to me because it's these areas where substantial work is needed for JPJ to progress and excel. Although his strengths may seem few in comparison to his weaknesses, Jackson is still a very good football player.
 
Starting with the positives, Jackson is very mobile and explosive (although there is a caveat to his explosiveness, which we will return to) and has a good build for the position. In simple terms, JPJ fits the mold of what most offensive coordinators are looking for in their IOLs today: highly mobile and really effective in zone schemes that require combos between the Center and Guards, followed by quickly moving one of them to the second level. JPJ excels in this area, and among his strengths is the few mistakes in angles when moving to the second level. It's rare to see a player who can use his speed to change pace as needed to position himself optimally for securing a block. 
 
Another strength is his age. At only 21 years old in his rookie season, Jackson already has a high floor, and his youth offers promising future prospects with a very high ceiling, leading to dreams of a bright future.
Another aspect I really like about JPJ is his nasty side on certain reps. What I particularly appreciate is that he rarely goes overboard; he doesn't hit to hurt or injure opponents and doesn't act foolishly, costing his team penalty yards. However, he doesn't hesitate to show dominance and make it known to his opponent.
As you can see, the strengths section is brief, which may be surprising for a player with such a high rating. However, as mentioned earlier, this is normal. Don't worry; if JPJ is selected by your team, he is a good player, but there is work to do, starting with his slight lack of power.
With his athletic abilities, one might expect a player like this to lack power, and JPJ confirms this. While he sometimes seems able to develop significant power to push back defenders with a good punch, he often crucially lacks power, both in the upper and lower body, struggling against more powerful DTs. When facing a powerful DT, JPJ can sometimes be beaten by well-executed techniques or a pure and brutal Bull Rush. In the league, he will have to face these kinds of players every week, so he needs to quickly elevate his game to avoid struggling in his rookie year.

Another point that bothered me in his tapes is his tendency to rush into his blocks. JPJ needs to be more careful not to release the block he is engaged in too quickly. It's not uncommon to see JPJ hold a block perfectly before simply letting it go for some reason.
This is even more apparent in certain pass protection situations where he is in a combo with one of his Guards and is so eager to help elsewhere that he abandons the initial block too quickly, sometimes when no one else needs his help and, on the contrary, the Guard he was in a combo with needs to leave the combo to pick up a blitz. Additionally, while he is really interesting in combos due to his athleticism and good angles, the same problem occurs during his combo ascents where he sometimes fails to secure before moving to the second level. This is a real concern for me because too often, he rushes and does not help his Guards lock the block, potentially closing gaps for ball carriers who then have to bounce elsewhere.
This season, this was not necessarily noticeable, thanks in part to a Bucky Irving with electric legs who was able to bounce back and gain yards, but it's important to remember that Oregon's OL dominated this season where JPJ might find himself on a squad with average players who won't be able to cope if he leaves them in trouble.

Regarding his snapping ability, which is quite important for a Center, I noted few missed snaps this season, but there are concerns that could arise at the next level. JPJ sometimes snaps in a rather soft manner; he would benefit from adding a bit more velocity to his Shotgun snaps. Moreover, I don't find him exceptional in the Snap -> First Step transition; he often absorbs the first step and doesn't always have the power to turn the tide. Additionally, the fact that his first step is delayed means he loses some reps over the season in this way, which worries me considering the difference in the level of opposition between the DTs he faced this year and the NFL DTs, who are even more monstrous, especially considering he was flagged numerous times this season for illegal snaps. This is a really important point to consider.
Another aspect of his snaps is that Oregon played a lot in Shotgun this year, limiting the technical work on the 'under center' snaps that are seen in pro-style offenses and still used by many NFL coaches. JPJ's adaptability to certain offensive systems will need to be seen.

Jackson will also need to be careful not to play too high. He can often be seen playing really high or with a non-existent power angle, which often tends to put him in great difficulty. On a few reps this season, he was also seen using Cut Blocks, and clearly, it's very mediocre, not to say bad. He does it really rarely, but it's still worth mentioning.
 
I was quite disappointed by the lack of initial impact in his blocks despite his good explosiveness. It's usually on the second and third steps that JPJ chooses to push the Defender or lock the block and activate his legs to create displacement on the LoS (Line of Scrimmage). It's a shame, but it goes hand in hand with the need to play lower. Jackson could really explode if he worked on this point.

Finally, perhaps the most important weakness of Jackson is also what took me the longest to detect and might not be apparent to many people: generally, Powers-Johnson really, really lacks footwork. A tremendous amount of work needs to be done on this, and I'm not mincing my words. I spent days on his tapes watching his games over and over to figure out what bothered me about him, and I think this is it. This seems to be the point that prevents JPJ from entering another dimension as a player. In running plays, he is too often inactive at the leg level (and you can immediately see the difference when he activates his legs to push back the DL). In Pass Pro, it's the same thing. He often backs up with flat feet and sometimes even on his heels, and he has sometimes scared himself by losing his balance alone, although it doesn't have an influence since he recovers well behind.
It's the same thing with playing too high or seeming to release his blocks too quickly; most often, it's because his legs don't follow. He plays too high because he doesn't have the necessary muscle power in his thighs. Moreover, when he stays too long in a stance, it's not uncommon to see him completely unfold his legs to look at his QB, and behind that, the rep is often bad, where the very good Centers tend to crouch on the ball while snapping. Moreover, if you watch closely, he is a player much more dangerous and dominant when Oregon accelerates the tempo, plays fast, and thus allows him to explode more quickly out of his Stance, and he is even more so when the play called forces him to be in motion and thus forces him to have active legs (zone plays that force him to combo and then move to the second level, RPOs that force him, even on pass plays, to advance because he doesn't know if it's going to run or not, play-action that also forces him to block as if it were a run when it's actually a pass. That kind of thing).
 
 

In short, there is a lot of work to be done before we see him truly dominate in the NFL. As it stands, do I think JPJ could be a starter in the NFL from his rookie year?
Yes, of course, but I don't think we would see the JPJ of Oregon, and I even think he would sometimes struggle a lot. Ultimately, what he showed this season might really lead one to believe he is ready when we actually have a player who is still very Raw in some areas.
Selecting him too early could really be a disservice to him in terms of expectations and performance that fans would expect. Does he flash on some reps? Absolutely, but I say be careful with him; in my opinion, he is not yet ready to be the player people see in him.

There is still a good amount of work to be done, and under these conditions, it is impossible for me to talk about a first-round pick, which might once again make me look like a fool or a hater, but I'm getting used to it. So, a second round maybe, and here I mainly think that it will depend on where he falls and what the team that drafts him sees in him.
Great potential to develop over 1 or 2 years with a veteran already well established in the position at the end of his career/contract, or even with a veteran who will bridge the gap until he is ready? Here it would be perfect, but on the other hand, I am against the idea of a second-round pick being thrown into the fire in his rookie year just because he's a second-round pick.
In my opinion, his value is at the end of the second round, beginning of the third, and knowing that whatever happens, JPJ will have to work before being a good starter at the position, with this level of work, if JPJ was 23-24 years old and not 21, I would have rated him much lower, but his potential remains really important if he develops correctly.

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