Kareem Jackson appears on track to play mostly safety in 2019

The Denver Broncos appear to be readying big money free agent signing Kareem Jackson for a role this year as a safety in their starting defense.

If the Denver Broncos are worried about losing Chris Harris Jr. at some point, they are not really showing it.

Like, at all.

The team signed defensive back Kareem Jackson to a three-year contract this offseason and since he signed, rumors had been floating around that he was going to be playing more safety than cornerback with the Broncos.

Considering the Broncos had a need at outside corner, having Jackson play there only made sense, right?

Even with Harris not joining the team for OTAs, Jackson is not playing cornerback in practice. You know, in case of emergency. He says he’s been playing safety with a little nickel mixed in.

So what are the Broncos going to do if Chris Harris Jr. doesn’t come back? Apparently they don’t intend on that being an option, because if it were, wouldn’t Jackson be practicing as one of the cornerbacks?

Especially considering Isaac Yiadom has been recovering from injury, this news is surprising.

Over the past three years, Jackson has played all over the defensive formation. He’s been a free safety, strong safety, box linebacker, nickel corner, and outside corner.

Primarily, he’s played the nickel position (2016-17) but in 2018, his highest percentage of snaps came as an outside corner.

He got his most extensive work at free safety (almost 290 snaps) back in 2017 with the Texans.

One of Jackson’s roles on this Broncos defense is going to be making sure everyone is aligned right. This means him playing deep free safety the majority of the time will make the most sense. He can check to make sure everyone is lined up properly at the back end of the formation.

The fact that the Broncos are installing their defense with Jackson working mostly at safety is a good indicator that the team feels like they will have Chris Harris at some point or another.

If Jackson is working at safety and the Broncos don’t bring Harris back this year, I think their defensive alignment would include Isaac Yiadom and Bryce Callahan as the outside corners in the base defense with Will Parks floating around as the top reserve defensive back, playing box safety and in the slot.

If Harris comes back, the team obviously has more (better) options all around.