JC Jackson of the Getty Patriots will reportedly not join the team on their trip to Germany
It’s not that the Patriots didn’t know that defensive lineman JC Jackson has trouble with details like being on time and showing up where he’s supposed to show up. After all, he had spent the first four years of his career in New England before signing a five-year, $82.5 million contract with the Chargers last offseason.
But just a month after the Patriots brought him back to the team after just one year in Los Angeles, the Patriots also appear to be fed up with JC Jackson.
New details from Albert Breer, NFL insider at SI.com, show that Jackson was held up early in last week’s game against the Commanders because he had issues with on-time performance. And as NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport noted, the Patriots will not be taking Jackson to Germany for Sunday’s game against the Colts.
According to sources, Patriots CB JC Jackson arrived late to the team hotel on Saturday, which was one of the reasons he started Sunday’s game against the Commanders on the bench. As @RapSheet said, Jackson will not be making the trip to Germany.
Reliability problems have long plagued Jackson.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) November 8, 2023
“Patriots CB JC Jackson arrived late to the team hotel on Saturday, according to sources, which was one of the reasons he started Sunday’s game against the Commanders on the bench. As @RapSheet said, Jackson will not be making the trip to Germany. Reliability issues have long plagued Jackson,” Breer wrote on Twitter (X).
JC Jackson from the Patriots crashed after mega contract
Coming into this season, it was clear that the Patriots’ old JC Jackson wasn’t the same player he was earlier in his career, when a hungry Jackson forced his way into the Patriots’ secondary rotation after going undrafted out of Maryland in 2016.
During that time, Jackson proved to be one of the NFL’s best ball-hawks, with 25 interceptions in his first four seasons. That included nine picks in 2020 and eight in 2021. He also earned a spot in the Pro Bowl that season and led the league with 23 passes defensed.
Those were the numbers the Chargers thought they were getting when they handed Jackson the $82 million contract. Instead, Jackson’s game progressed and he continued to become a good player for LA. He played only seven games for the Chargers and received $38.5 million on his huge deal before Los Angeles agreed to send him to the Patriots for a seventh/sixth round pick swap.
An ESPN report on the fiasco, in which a Chargers source called Jackson’s actions “careless,” even went so far as to say that GM Tom Telesco apologized to the team’s defensive backs for moving Jackson.
Telesco has told the group that signing Jackson was a mistake, according to multiple team sources. “He apologized for continuing to give Jackson opportunities even though Jackson regularly showed he wasn’t as committed as the rest of the team despite being one of the Chargers’ highest-paid players,” Kris Rihm reported.
Bill Belichick’s mother on “Benchings”
After the stunning loss to the Commanders, a team that appeared to be in the process of sending the season into tank mode when it traded away its two best pass rushers (Montez Sweat and Chase Young), coach Bill Belichick gave only the typical Vague answer as to why the Patriots’ JC Jackson (as well as defensive lineman Jack Jones) did not start the game.
Asked if they had been benched, Belichick replied, “No.”
Then he added: “Everyone played. They all played.”
Belichick was asked if there were disciplinary reasons for Jones not starting.
“We played all corners,” he said. “We all played safeties. We really played everyone on defense.”
This was included in week 9. But it will be a different story for the Patriots in Week 10.
Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter who covers the NBA and NFL for Heavy.com. He has been writing for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of NBA reporting experience, including 17 years as a senior NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of seven nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley Were Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney
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