Austin
Jackson.
Austin
Jackson.
USC· 6'5"· 322 lb· 5.07s 40
"A twenty-year-old left tackle with a 322-pound frame and a 115-inch broad jump, drafted purely on the promise that his hands would eventually catch up to his feet."Pre-draft read
Three-year contributor and two-year starting left tackle at USC who played the position like a converted athlete rather than a finished technician. At 6-5 and 322 pounds he moved like a man 40 pounds lighter: easy lateral slide, loose hips out of his stance, and the range to cut off backside defenders on wide zone.
In pass protection he was a project living on recovery athleticism. He set with a high pad level and inconsistent hand placement, then survived because his feet stayed alive. Against power he gave ground, and his anchor lagged behind his mobility. The separator was the raw package: a 5.07 forty and a 115-inch broad jump at 322 pounds, numbers that promised a starting tackle if the technique caught up.
Outside and wide zone running game that asks his tackle to reach, climb and finish in space rather than win static one-on-one power reps on an island.
Year 1: developmental swing tackle with guard flexibility behind a set line. Ceiling: multi-year starting right tackle on a zone-heavy offense.
Vertical-set, deep drop-back passing attack that leaves its left tackle alone against premier speed-to-power rushers on obvious throwing downs.
The move from left to right tackle in 2022 was the single change that made his career work.
Austin Jackson Ultimate Highlights
USC reel showing the lateral range on zone and the finish at the second level.
Austin Jackson Highlights | NFL Draft 2020
Pre-draft cut-up of the 2019 season, the tape the first-round grade was built on.
Film Study: Dolphins Dieter, Eichenberg & Jackson in Zone Stretch Plays
NFL film study of Jackson inside Miami's zone stretch scheme early in his career.
Jackson entered the 2020 class as the youngest offensive lineman of consequence on the board, a 20-year-old left tackle with three years in the USC program and only 25 career starts, all of them in his last two seasons. Evaluators graded the frame, the feet and the age rather than the tape, and the gap between those two things defined his entire evaluation.
The production line was thin but the context was heavy. He appeared in all 39 games of his career, earned first-team All-Pac-12 as a junior, and did it in a season that began weeks after he donated bone marrow to his sister Autumn, who lives with Diamond-Blackfan anemia. The 2019 film showed a blocker who could win the perimeter and bury defenders once he latched, and who also lost reps to inside counters and long-arm bull rushes because his hands were late and his pad level was tall. His combine confirmed the athletic case: 27 bench reps, a 115-inch broad jump, 5.07 in the forty at 322 pounds.
The board had him as a top-40 tackle with wide variance, a developmental left tackle who needed a redshirt year. Miami took him 18th overall and asked him to start immediately at the most exposed position on the field, betting that traits and age would outrun the technique deficit.
- 01
Movement for the frame
Slides and redirects like a much lighter man, with the lateral range to cut off wide-zone backside and the balance to stay square through contact.
- 02
Second-level climb
Gets to linebackers cleanly on combos and zone, adjusts his angle in space, and finishes blocks well beyond the line of scrimmage.
- 03
Age and runway
Turned 20 the spring of the draft with three years of Power Five reps behind him, an unusual combination of youth and exposure at tackle.
- 04
Testing profile
5.07 forty, 1.73 ten-yard split, 115-inch broad jump and 27 bench reps at 322 pounds put him in the top tier of the class athletically.
- 05
Finishing temperament
Plays through the whistle and looks to bury defenders once he latches, showing a mean streak the technique work had not yet organized.
- 01
Late hands
Strikes with inconsistent timing and placement, letting rushers into his chest and turning winnable reps into scrambles to recover.
- 02
High pad level
Plays tall out of his stance, which costs him leverage against bull rushers and lets power converge on his edge far too easily.
- 03
Anchor lag
Gives ground on long-arm and bull rush and struggles to sink and stop the charge once a defender gets under his frame.
- 04
Thin starting résumé
Only 25 career starts, all at left tackle, with technique still cycling week to week rather than settling into a repeatable process.
Relative Athletic Score (Kent Lee Platte) benchmarks combine/pro-day numbers against every measured prospect at the position since 1987. 10.00 is elite; 5.00 is average.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 5.07sp50
- Vertical
- 31inp50
- Broad jump
- 115inp50
- Three-cone
- 7.95sp50
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 27repp50
| Yr | Team | G |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | USC | 14 |
| 2018 | USC | 12 |
| 2019 | USC | 13 |
| Career | — | 39 |
Games from Sports-Reference (bowl games included). All 25 career starts came at left tackle across 2018-2019; the 2017 true-freshman season was rotational and his start total that year is not published, so it is left blank rather than assumed. First-team All-Pac-12 in 2019.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
First-round tackle with tools who bounces between spots and settles in as a functional but inconsistent starter.
The ceiling if the hands and pad level had caught up to the movement skills: an athletic right tackle who becomes a multi-year anchor.
Top-20 tackle whose technique never catches the frame and who only survives after a permanent move inside or across the line.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Miami started him at left tackle as a rookie and the technique gap showed immediately, then moved him around the line: he logged starts at left tackle, left guard and right tackle over three seasons, and the fifth-year option was declined. The reset came when Mike McDaniel's staff parked him at right tackle. An ankle injury wiped out nearly all of 2022, but 2023 was the answer: he started every game at right tackle on a Dolphins offense that led the NFL in total offense and yards per play, and Miami gave him a three-year, $36 million extension that December. Injuries then took the next two seasons, limiting him to 14 games across 2024 and 2025, and in March 2026 he reworked the final year into a one-year, $7 million deal that saved Miami $8.5 million in cap space. A toe injury landed him on injured reserve in September 2026.
The honest read is that the pick was right about the player and wrong about the position and the timeline. Jackson is a functional NFL starter, a real outcome for a 20-year-old project but not the return a team expects at 18th overall. Every criticism in the pre-draft file came true first, and the fix was not coaching alone: it was moving him off the blind side, where the athletic traits could carry a cleaner job description. His 2023 season remains the proof of concept; availability, not ability, is what has kept the pick from paying off since.
Data note: from Pittsburgh