Acquisition of Jackson Adds Help to Depleted Patriots Secondary
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With the New England Patriots’ secondary in tough shape, Bill Belichick orchestrated a homecoming for one of his former players on Wednesday.
ESPN’s Mike Reiss and Kris Rhim reported that the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Chargers reached a trade agreement to bring J.C. Jackson back to Fobxoro, with the Patriots giving up a 2025 sixth-round pick in exchange for Jackson and a 2025 seventh-rounder.
Jackson’s return is certainly big for New England’s secondary, with the club losing first-round pick Christian Gonzalez to a torn labrum in the first quarter of their loss in Dallas.
The injury is expected to keep Gonzalez sidelined for the rest of the season, ending what had been a promising start for the rookie.
Meanwhile, the Patriots have also been without second-year defensive backs Marcus Jones and Jack Jones, with Marcus likely out for most of the year after he also suffered a torn labrum back in Week 1 against the Eagles.
As for Jack Jones, he’s been out with a reported hamstring injury, which Reiss had previously reported will potentially keep him out until midseason.
That’s left the Patriots’ depth chart in their secondary dangerously thin, especially since it already caused Myles Bryant and Shaun Wade to see extended playing time against the Cowboys in their absence.
Clearly, Belichick wasn’t overly comfortable with that being the situation moving forward, so he saw an opportunity to go get Jackson, and hopefully, the former undrafted free agent will help stabilize things a bit.
Jackson is coming back from a season-ending knee injury that he suffered in Week 7 last season in his first season in Los Angeles. He’s reportedly still been trying to get healthy, and it remains to be seen how close he is to being the player who finished with eight interceptions during his final season here.
The Patriots are also still hoping Jonathan Jones is able to return. He’s been out since hurting his ankle in practice leading up to the Dolphins game. He was limited in practice last week before being downgraded to “Out” ahead of their meeting against Dallas.
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