After being snubbed by the NFL Draft combine, Dan Jackson defied the odds yet again by being selected by the Detroit Lions with the No. 230 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. It looks like the former walk-on will have to do it one more time, as ESPN reported on Tuesday that the Lions had placed Jackson on the injured reserve due to a leg injury suffered in practice on Monday. With no timetable for a return, head coach Dan Campbell told reporters that the injury “doesn’t look good.”
“It looks like he’s going to be down for a while,” Campbell said.
Jackson was active in the Lions first preseason game last week, finishing tied for second on the team with six tackles, tying for the team lead with four solo stops. Jackson played in all 14 games for Georgia during the 2024 season, making 13 starts and finishing third on the team with 64 tackles, along with two interceptions, five pass breakups, 1.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and one blocked punt. He earned Coaches All-SEC Third Team honors for the 2024 season as well. Jackson played in 47 games for Georgia, making 19 starts, and finishing his career with 140 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, four interceptions, nine pass breakups, three forced fumbles, two blocked kicks, and one fumble recovery, along with one 8-yard punt return.
“Man, to think that guy came to Georgia on his own, without us even recruiting him, and to make the plays he’s made,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said last season. “That hit fumble will be one for the ages because he wasn’t just hitting a normal dude. That guy’s a competitor. A lot of respect for Dan. He didn’t even have to come back this year. He debated whether he was going to play football again this year. I think about where we’d be without him, just a lot of respect for him and his leadership. Really, all these kids that want to go and transfer and change and do all this, look at a guy like Dan Jackson. He is what college football is all about, guys. He’s not asking for more money. He’s not trying to go somewhere else. The guy just loves Georgia.”
In late January, Jackson took part in the Reese’s Senior Bowl, the first opportunity for post-collegiate players to impress NFL scouts. Players voted for the top position players during an awards ceremony in Mobile, Alabama. The American team’s wide receivers and tight ends voted Georgia’s Dan Jackson as the top safety. Jackson beat out Oklahoma’s Billy Bowman, Tulane’s Caleb Ransaw, Maryland’s Dante Trader Jr., and Wisconsin’s Hunter Wohler for the honor. While Wohler and Trader are considered late Day 3 prospects by many analysts, Bowman has gotten projections in the early 4th round. That provided Jackson with some real momentum early in the draft evaluation process.
Somehow, Jackson was not among the 329 prospects invited to the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Then came Georgia’s Pro Day, where Jackson measured in at 6-foot, 194 pounds, and posted a 40-yard dash time of 4.46 and 4.48, a 34-inch vertical jump, a 10-foot, 3-inch broad jump, a 4.36-second short-shuttle, and a 7.12 3-cone drill time. Those testing numbers would have all ranked among the top 10 for safety participants at the combine. Jackson told Dawgs247’s Olivia Sayer after his performance that he hoped to provide himself to the scouts in attendance.
“I just want them to realize how much that I love the game,” Jackson said. “Sometimes you can tell by watching on film, but I feel like once they get to know me, they’ll realize that I don’t just like football. I love it, and I will for the rest of my life.”
