{"id":148960,"date":"2023-10-05T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=148960"},"modified":"2023-10-05T00:37:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T04:37:54","slug":"how-the-jc-jackson-trade-impacts-the-chargers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/10\/05\/how-the-jc-jackson-trade-impacts-the-chargers\/","title":{"rendered":"How the JC Jackson Trade Impacts the Chargers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chargers have traded cornerback JC Jackson<\/a> back to the team he started with \u2013 the New England Patriots. The compensation was a swap of future late-round picks; there was also some reworking of Jackson\u2019s contract as well. For the Patriots part, this was obviously in response to Christian Gonzalez\u2019s injury turning out to be more serious. For the Chargers, however, this marks both a tumultuous decision and the end of a saga with quite arguably the biggest free agent bust in franchise history.<\/p>\n

How the JC Jackson Trade Affects the Chargers<\/h2>\n

How We Got Here<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s been plenty said about J.C. Jackson in his short time with the Chargers \u2013 for folks out of the loop, however, the short version is that in 2022, despite being a prized free agency acquisition, he struggled so badly he got benched at one point and then suffered a season-ending patellar tendon injury midway through the season. That\u2019s been career-ending for some, but he miraculously was ready to return by Week 1.<\/p>\n

But the struggles continued. Jackson played so badly through two weeks that he got benched \u2013 this time permanently. He was a healthy scratch in Week 3, and active in Week 4 but didn\u2019t play a single snap. In fairness, Brandon Staley didn\u2019t do him any favors in Week 1 by putting him in single coverage with no help against Tyreek Hill. But with no sign of improvement and possibly his relationship with the coaches breaking down<\/a>, the Chargers effectively gave up on him. Whether it was because of an issue of bad scheme fit, Jackson not giving his all after giving a payday, injuries slowing him down, or some combination of the above, the Chargers ended the saga and traded him away.<\/p>\n

The Cap Impact<\/h3>\n

As mentioned, there was some reworking of Jackson\u2019s contract to facilitate the trade. There was just over $10 million remaining for Jackson\u2019s salary this year; New England took on $1.55 million of it, while the Chargers are eating the rest. That affords them enough room to add another cheap face to the cornerback room \u2013 which appears to be Essang Bassey, who they claimed off waivers (though that happened before the deal was in the books) \u2013 so unless they intend to add a second additional face, that will be the lone new face to the cornerback room.<\/p>\n

The catch here beyond how 2023 shakes out is that, due to the re-workings of the contract, the Chargers will now eat around $20 million of dead money in 2024. The flip side of that is they\u2019re free after that, not owing him anything for 2025-26, which would have been the final two years of his contract. It\u2019s an unfortunate cap hit to take when 2024 is already looking crowded in that regard, but saving $1.55 million and having an out for 2025-26 is still a better deal than the Chargers would\u2019ve gotten if they had just released him instead.<\/p>\n

Information on the cap taken from Over the Cap.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Impact on the Defense<\/h3>\n

Now the Chargers will revert more or less back to the cornerback lineup they had this year \u2013 sans Bryce Callahan in the slot, with Ja\u2019Sir Taylor taking that place. Michael Davis and Asante Samuel Jr should remain the permanent starters now. The positive of this aspect is that it should mean more lineup consistency among the cornerbacks \u2013 which had been a problem early on, due in part to Jackson\u2019s poor play causing repeated mid-game benchings.<\/p>\n

Let us not forget that last year, the Chargers secondary was literally better without <\/i>JC Jackson than with. While the difference hasn\u2019t been as dramatic in the two games without Jackson this year, they are 2-0 without him. Make of that what you will.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to see Essang Bassey having much of an impact on the Chargers \u2013 he\u2019s been here before in 2021 (albeit briefly \u2013 two weeks), but he\u2019s never been much more than a depth player whether with the Chargers or his other team, the Broncos. Deane Leonard is more likely to get the first crack at cornerback snaps if needed. But depending on how Leonard does, Bassey could end up in the rotation as well.<\/p>\n

In Conclusion<\/h3>\n

The Chargers can now move on from J.C. Jackson and move ahead without a player that was effectively a liability, and possibly becoming a distraction. The dead cap hit over the next couple of years isn\u2019t exactly pretty, but there was never going to be a perfect solution to that.<\/p>\n

This won\u2019t fix all the problems with the Chargers defense, but it\u2019s a start \u2013 and one that was not expected to be made this quickly at that. There\u2019s plenty to criticize Brandon Staley for lately, but being willing both to bench and cut loose a big-name player like that when it wasn\u2019t working out deserves credit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The JC Jackson trade marks a big move for the Chargers front office, with ramifications for the defense as well as their cap space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2355,"featured_media":148963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,18],"tags":[7642,4086,7429],"class_list":["post-148960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-chargers","tag-chargers-featured","tag-jc-jackson","tag-los-angeles-chargers-news"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}