Adoree’ Jackson and James Bradberry emerging as elite cornerback duo

One week into training camp, the New York Giants’ secondary has been the most impressive unit on the team. Adoree’ Jackson and James Bradberry have made life very difficult for Daniel Jones, forcing consecutive incompletions and three and outs. Kenny Golladay has struggled against both of them.

The early returns are promising for a Giants team that hopes Bradberry and Jackson can become one of the NFL’s elite cornerback duos.

Bradberry is already at that level. His three-year, $43.5 million contract became one of the league’s best bargains when he turned in a career year in 2020. He allowed 6.4 yards per target and had three interceptions, both personal bests. He was then selected to his first Pro Bowl and was named the league’s fifth-best cornerback by Pro Football Focus.

Bradberry attributed his success to the pressure he felt to perform in New York.

“Now that I’m here, it’s a bigger market,” Bradberry said following last season. “And as a key free agent, guys are looking to me to be a leader and make plays, so that’s a different kind of pressure that I hadn’t had in the past.’’

But another key factor in Bradberry’s performance was Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham. Graham emphasized physical play in his first year with the Giants and coaxed breakout years from Bradberry, Leonard Williams, Jabrill Peppers and more. New York’s defense ranked ninth in points allowed — they were 30th before Graham arrived.

Now the Giants are hoping that Graham can have the same effect on Adoree’ Jackson, who joins the team after an injury-plagued year with the Tennessee Titans.

When healthy, Jackson has been of football’s most consistent defenders. Since entering the league, he has forced the second-most incompletions on passes of over 20 yards and earned Pro Football Focus’s eighth-highest grade (85.0) in outside coverage.

The comparisons to Bradberry are obvious. Jackson arrives as a respected player who has yet to reach a Pro-Bowl level. Their pre-Giants stat lines are almost identical — Jackson allowed 7.4 yards per target, Bradberry allowed 6.9 — and Jackson’s three-year, $39 million contract is similar to Bradberry’s.

Jackson is aware of the parallels and is trying to learn all he can from Bradberry and his teammates.

“What’s crazy is when I first came here, I treated myself like a rookie, like the new guy,” Jackson said. “That was my mindset every day, just trying to learn from everybody no matter who you are in the room. So, for me I’m just trying to enjoy it and soak up all the information that I can because you’re never too old to learn and you’re never too young to learn, as well. So, I think that’s just been my mindset, just to think that I’m not anybody and trying to improve on my game.”

If Adoree’ Jackson lives up to expectations, the Giants’ entire defensive scheme could change. New York played man coverage only a third of the time last year because they lacked a dependable corner opposite Bradberry.

“In our system, we want to be able to play man [coverage], when it comes to third down, red [zone] area, two-minute [defense],” Graham said. “In this league, you’re going to have to play some version of man at some point.’’

Featured image courtesy of Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

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