NFL Draft
11/18/24
6 min read
Landon Jackson 2025 NFL Draft: Scouting Report For Arkansas Razorbacks DL
Height: 6070 (unofficial)
Weight: 280 lbs (unofficial)
Year: Senior
Pro Comparison: Emmanuel Ogbah
Scouting Overview
Arkansas Razorbacks defensive lineman Landon Jackson projects as an NFL starter. He’s got a highly intriguing blend of skills for a variety of different schemes and roles. He has linear power that makes him a handful at the point of attack and appears to have the ability to compress the edges of the pocket and reduce his angles to the quarterback to ensure passing down value at the next level.
Jackson’s length and reach showcase punch power for knockbacks and gravitational pull for the football when playing off blocks or contesting throwing windows. He’s somewhat tightly wound through the hips, so he needs to create space for himself to close to the target.
However, he does have a number of effective rush counters developed to help him change things up based on what kind of set he gets. Ideally, he’d be a bit more quick-twitch to ensure a full complement of skills to win on passing downs, but the floor here is high.
2025 NFL Combine Results
TBD
Positives
- Elite hand power and length to reset the line of scrimmage and control blocks
- Has shown likable growth with his pass rush counters, offering some variety that was not present a few years ago
- Anchor ability against the run is strong and will hold the point of attack effectively
Negatives
- Tight hips create challenges turning the corner against tackles who resist his initial compression on pass rushes
- Leverage and pad level constraints likely to exist at times due to high cut frame and height
- Offers a sufficient first step, but the margin for error on the edge is lesser than that of others
Background
Landon Jackson is from Texarkana, TX, and played high school football for Pleasant Grove HS. There, he was rated as a 4-star recruit (247 Sports) while rolling up 45 career sacks and being named the 4A Defensive Player of the Year in Texas during his junior season. Jackson would go on to enroll initially at LSU, choosing them over Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and more.
Jackson spent one season at LSU, playing in five games as a true freshman in 2021. He did not log any statistics. After his freshman season, Jackson was back in the transfer portal and committed to the Razorbacks.
He’s become a steadily improving talent in the three years since, starting seven games as a true sophomore in 2022 before commanding a full-time starting role by 2023. Jackson was named First-Team All-SEC in 2023 for his defensive efforts.
Tale Of The Tape
Jackson doesn’t necessarily profile as a high-volume sack artist at the NFL level, but he does profile as a high-volume snap taker. The floor as an early-down defender is easy to love, especially for teams that play gap-control schemes up front and want their defensive lineman to control the point of attack and shed blocks to make plays on the football at the line of scrimmage.
Jackson is effective here, thanks to some elite physical traits.
The length is the first and most obvious element of Jackson’s game that will garner a lot of attention. He has a massive reach and, more importantly, knows how to use it to his advantage at the point of attack. His extension skills, upper body power, and subsequent block deconstruction efforts at the point of attack allow him to read the track of the back and disengage swiftly as a means of challenging and making tackles in the hole. Jackson has the reach and functional strength in these situations to finish tackle opportunities.
His reach is paired with impressive punch power and fairly accurate hands, which allow him to jolt back the pads of offensive linemen and reset the line of scrimmage to disrupt the track of the running back. His ability to compress and create uneven levels, whether it comes from overtop of a tight end, as a base end, or a 4i playing in the B-gap, creates exit lanes out of his fit to press to space and not be a part of the muck in the core. His hand power qualities extend to his abilities as a rusher, too.
It’s a needed element to his game — as Jackson doesn’t have the best first step. He’s a high-hipped long strider, and as a result, he won’t consistently win against offensive tackles with a pure speed rush. He has enough power through his frame and hands alike to translate his pocket compression skills. If the quarterback flushes off his landmark into Jackson’s vicinity, he’s got a better-than-average chance to pull the quarterback down because of his wingspan and ability to play through contact with functional strength.
He does have a number of rush counters and winners at his disposal. He’s very proficient with a euro-chop to force a missed punch and can play with a long arm to power rush and collapse the tackle’s outside shoulder.
Jackson may be best served in a schemed rush defense, where pick stunts, two and three-man games, and a calculated effort to attack elements of an opposing protection scheme are more prominent. I don’t think he has the raw explosiveness and dynamic agility around the edge to be someone who you simply let off the leash and tell him to go hunt.
Jackson can help himself as a rusher by being committed to working on his leverage. It isn’t a coincidence that when he’s sitting firmly on his hips in a run fit, he’s difficult to move and has some teach tape at the position.
Can he find that same leverage despite his stature when playing urgency forward to rush the passer? That’s the key to him being the best version of himself in the NFL.
Ideal Scheme Fit, Role
Jackson presents intriguing value in either odd or even fronts. As a base end, Jackson figures to be an effective edge setting run defender who has enough pass rush capability to stay on the field.
In odd fronts, Jackson presents as a penetration 4i, where he can crash the B-gap freely and without recourse to any outside contain responsibility. He projects as an NFL starter, but his rush impact will likely lag behind his run-defending early in his career.
Grade: 81.00/100.00, Late First/Early Second Round Value
Big Board Rank: TBD
Position Rank: TBD
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