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What Drake Jackson Needs to Show in OTAs

Jackson has one last chance to prove himself.

Grant Cohn

Aug 25, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Drake Jackson (95)
Aug 25, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Drake Jackson (95) / Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
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Only two years ago the 49ers drafted Drake Jackson in Round 2.

Jackson was supposed to develop into the starting defensive end opposite Nick Bosa. Defensive line coach Kris Kocurek raved about Jackson and personally vouched for his talent and potential. When they drafted Jackson, he was only 21 years old, so he wasn't expected to produce right away. But he still played 33 percent of the defensive snaps and recorded 3 sacks. Not a bad rookie year.

Then in 2023, Jackson got an opportunity to be the primary edge rusher opposite Bosa on passing downs. But he struggled in that role. He recorded three clean-up sacks Week 1 against the Steelers, then recorded zero sacks the rest of the season. After eight games, the 49ers shut down Jackson and never activated him again. They shut him down. Instead, they traded for Randy Gregory and Chase Young and simply forgot about Jackson.

Now Jackson has one last chance to prove himself.

Gregory and Young are gone. So is Clelin Ferrell, who was the 49ers starting base defensive end last season. In their places are Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos. Those two will make the team, as will Bosa. So Jackson will have to beat out last year's fifth-round pick Robert Beal Jr. to make the team. And to beat out Beal, Jackson will have to show he has gotten much stronger than he was the past two seasons.

Last year, Jackson bragged that he can put up three plates on the bench, which woudl be impressive for a wide receiver, but not for a 270-pound defensive end. Let's see how strong he is this year.

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Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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