September 09, 2025
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Vic Fangio is sticking with veteran CB Adoree' Jackson as his starter, for now.
Despite his game-long struggles against Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, Eagles cornerback Adoree' Jackson is getting another chance to start Sunday when the Eagles play the Chiefs in Kansas City for a Super Bowl rematch.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio confirmed at his Tuesday press conference that the ninth-year vet would start again opposite Quinyon Mitchell, although he left some wiggle room when asked directly.
"Right now, yes," Fangio said, with "right now" perhaps leaving the door open to Fangio changing his mind sometime before Sunday's 4:25 p.m. kickoff.
But the reality for Fangio, who made it known throughout training camp that he wasn't thrilled by any of his options, is there's nowhere else to go at this point.
Jackson won the competition by default over third-year pro Kelee Ringo, who struggled in the preseason games and was demoted to third string by the end of camp, and over newcomer Jakorian Bennett, who arrived via early August trade with Las Vegas and just hasn't had enough time yet in Fangio's defense to start.
It's possible that Bennett just needs a little more time. He played seven snaps Thursday in place of Jackson, who briefly exited to get checked out, and was flagged for pass interference on his first snap. Bennett allowed a pass from Dak Prescott to Lamb a few plays later, but Fangio conceded, "yeah, that's enough" of an honest evaluation of the former Raiders corner.
For now, Fangio appears set on going with Jackson against the Chiefs despite being targeted seven times and allowing five receptions for 103 yards. Lamb was responsible for 72 of those yards on just three catches.
Fangio noted that Jackson needs to fine-tune his technique. Lamb got Jackson turned around on a 34-yard catch on 3rd-and-1 on Dallas' opening drive, setting up a touchdown.
Jackson leveraged Lamb toward the deep safety, which he's supposed to do, but then squeezed Lamb too much and lost his leverage as Lamb got into his hip pocket and broke to the outside.
In fariness, Lamb is an All-Pro receiver who's one of the NFL's smoothest route-runners. Jackson isn't the first, and won't be the last, cornerback to get turned around by Lamb.
But later in the game, Jackson allowed another long completion to Lamb on third down, a 26-yarder that was almost gift-wrapped.
The hunch here is Jackson was afraid of getting toasted on another post-corner. He played too wide instead of squeezing into Lamb's hip pocket for tighter coverage.
"He's just gotta make sure he's a master technician," Fangio said, "and not let his technique falter. They have good receivers and if you don't go about your job the right way from a technique standpoint, those good receivers become impossible to cover."
Fortunately for Jackson, Fangio and the Eagles' defense, the Chiefs are down their top two receivers. Rashee Rice is serving the second game of a six-game suspension and second-year pro Xavier Worthy, a 2024 first-round pick who set the NFL Combine 40-yard dash record, suffered a dislocated shoulder Friday and is very unlikely to play.
The Chiefs have been trying to bring the deep strike back to their offense after watching Patrick Mahomes' yards-per-attempt average dwindle over the past two seasons, dropping from 8.1 in 2022 to 7.0 in 2023 to 6.8 last year. His 26 TD passes in 16 games last year is the fewest he's thrown in his career when playing 16 or more games.
After Worthy exited against the Chargers, the Chiefs leaned more on Marquise Brown, Juju Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton, but Brown only managed 99 yards on 10 catches. Mahomes did have completions of 49 yards (to Brown), 37 yards (to Travis Kelce), and 38 yards (to Thornton).
"I think they'll continue to throw it deep some," Fangio said. "I think they've made it a major emphasis this year. They did it in the first game. They did in the preseason."
Fangio's best non-Jackson option at outside corner would be moving Cooper DeJean from the slot and finding a different slot corner when the Eagles are in nickel defense. DeJean is already taking outside corner reps in the base defense and the Eagles interestingly worked out veteran slot corner Mike Hilton this week.
In the past, Fangio has been adamant that DeJean is too valuable in the slot to move elsewhere, but he was asked again about the potential of moving DeJean outside full-time and this time he paused before responding with, "Preferably, we want to keep him at nickel."
What Fangio prefers versus what he might feel is necessary in a week or two could be different things.
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