All QB projections   •  Current QB rankings   •   All MIN projections   •  MIN team report   •  MIN Stats

QB Tarvaris Jackson, Minnesota Vikings

HT: 6-2, WT: 225, Born: 4-21-1983, College: Alabama State, Drafted: Round 2

2008 Projections

Average draft position

Current as of June 28th. [Full ADP list]

Overall: A Smith (182), K Warner (183), Tarvaris Jackson (184), R Meachem (186)
Position: A Smith (182-QB25), K Warner (183-QB26), Tarvaris Jackson (184 - QB27), M Ryan (207-QB28),
Click here for a comparison of these players.

 Click here to go to the Tarvaris Jackson faceoff, our staff's look at the pros and cons.

Best Case

Tarvaris Jackson could reward the faith the Vikings showed in him two years ago and blossom into the player the organization feels he can be. He's got the pedigree of a second round pick, and has shown flashes of ability in his brief career; now he's got to put it all together. Jackson has the best rushing attack in football lining up behind him, and the Vikings greatly improved the receiving corps by bringing in Bernard Berrian from the division rival Bears. If Jackson and Berrian can get on the same page, and Jackson can avoid the nagging injuries of 2007, he could make great strides. The largest increase production-wise is supposed to be after a quarterback's first sixteen NFL games. Jackson has played exactly sixteen.

Worst Case

Jackson could regress into the quarterback who threw nine touchdowns against twelve interceptions a year ago, getting benched for Brooks Bollinger along the way. Despite the high draft pick, most observers felt the Vikings reached for Jackson where they took him. The team went out and signed Gus Frerotte this past offseason, and if Jackson opens up 2008 anything like he closed out 2007, he could find himself seated on the bench yet again. This team has gone out and put itself in a position to win now, and poor play from the quarterback spot will not be tolerated.

Outlook

There is no question that Jackson is in a far better position to excel in 2008 than he was in 2007. Aside from the obvious experience issue, the team knows what it has going forward in Adrian Peterson. The dynamic run game will help to take a lot of pressure off of Jackson. Additionally, having a legitimate number one target in Bernard Berrian should do wonders for the Minnesota passing game. Of course, all of the improvements can't just come around Jackson -- he needs to improve his own game. If he can make better decisions, combined with his athletic ability to run with the football, it's not too difficult to see Jackson putting up statistics that would make him worthy of a QB2 in most leagues.

Relevant Articles

Why he is undervalued

Andy Hicks - In his first season as starter Tarvaris Jackson ranked 20th. Highly promising Sidney Rice and free agent Bernard Berrian are a significant upgrade over last years leading receivers, Robert Ferguson and Bobby Wade. Add in Jackson's threat as a runner and the sublime skills of Adrian Peterson and teams will dare Jackson to beat them. It would be too easy to ridicule Tarvaris Jackson as a quarterback, don't fall for it.

Jeff Pasquino - Jackson has seen his team improve all around him since December with Bernard Berrian coming from the Bears and his already solid defense getting better. Jackson has no real competition for playing time, so the job is his for this season. With speedy targets like Berrian and Sidney Rice and a strong RB tandem of Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor, Jackson should be able to get 13-17 touchdown passes and a few scores from his own two feet.

2008 Schedule

2007 Game Summaries

Week 1 - Jackson started slowly, but appeared to play with more confidence as the game went on. Jackson finished with 163 yards on 13 completions and 23 attempts with one touchdown and one interception. Jackson was not asked to do much, rarely throwing the ball deep, completing mainly short passes. His touchdown pass was on a short pass to Adrian Peterson that Peterson took for 60 yards.

Week 2 - Jackson opened the game by completing his first four passes for 31 yards. And then he fell apart. His fifth pass was intercepted, and he was just 13-29 the rest of the way with four interceptions (each one a worse decision than the one preceding it). It got so bad that Detroit started sending blitzers on every down in an effort to rush Jackson's passes and force him into poor decisions. It would appear at this point that he is not very adept at recognizing the blitz and knowing what to do, because he was never able to sustain drives for his team. Far too often, he simply put the ball in traffic for the sake of avoiding a sack, but the turnovers give a pretty clear indication of how wise those decisions were. He did manage to score a touchdown by lunging in from a yard out after a screen pass to Adrian Peterson put the Vikings at the one yard line. Jackson left the contest late in the game with an apparent groin injury, and he'll be re-evaluated later this week.

Week 6 - In his return from injury, Jackson handed off the ball 43 times to passing 23 times. As it turned out, the Vikings averaged 5.9 yards per passing play, while gaining 7.2 yards per rushing play, so this was the right move, especially considering that Jackson completed just 39% of his passes. In leading the Vikings to a division victory on the road, he didn't turn the ball over. If not to include a sixty yard touchdown to Troy Williamson, Jackson averaged less than 3.5 yards per passing play.

Week 7 - Jackson failed to provide any spark to the Vikings passing game. He completed less than a third of his passes, and completed only two passes to players other than his running backs. He consistently took too long to make decisions, resulting in his once open receivers being covered, or in getting sacked. He did not show any lingering effects from his groin injury and scrambled four times for 20 yards.

Week 9 - Jackson was having the most pedestrian game imaginable when he was knocked from the contest courtesy of a sandwich tackle by LBs Stephen Cooper and Shawne Merriman. He had one ball nearly picked off by S Marlon McCree, he had another tipped by LB Stephen Cooper, and a third pass that seemingly every Charger defender had a hand on before it fell incomplete. He also wasn't doing much to move the offense or put points on the board, and getting knocked from the game may have been something of a blessing in disguise for Minnesota. Despite getting a ton of time to throw from his offensive line, Jackson couldn't find anyone downfield and didn't do a ton with his legs to make up for it. In fact, his best run of the day coincided with his final play of the day. He dove at the end of a ten yard run, only to have his helmet jostled around and banged into the turf by Merriman and Cooper. Jackson didn't return to the game. He was later seen on the sidelines laughing and joking with teammates and celebrating the victory, so hopefully for his sake the injury won't be serious. We'll keep you updated throughout the week in any case.

Week 11 - Jackson only had five incompletions in the game and looked good on a number of plays that found him firing completed passes to his wide receivers. Despite the high completion percentage, he finished the game with only 171 yards passing and he did turn the ball over twice in the game. The first was a first quarter interception that came with the Minnesota offense working form the Oakland three yard line. Jackson turned the ball over again in the second quarter after loosing the ball on a sack. In addition to using his arm, the Vikings' quarter back was also able to us his legs to help move the Minnesota offense. Jackson was able to pick up a first down on a quarterback draw that went for 12 yards on a third and ten play in the fourth quarter. He finished the day averaging just over six yards on three carries.

Week 12 - Jackson's best play came on his first pass attempt. With the Giants looking to stuff the run with eight men in the box, Jackson looked to the left leading the safety to one side, then came back deep down the right sideline hitting Sidney Rice for a 60 yard touchdown. For the remainder of the game, Jackson was asked mainly to hand the ball off, and throw short conservative passes. He ended up with a nice completion percentage, but he did take several sacks when he should have known the pressure was coming and thrown the ball away. He did escape pressure several times and added 38 yards on the ground to his meager passing number.

Week 13 - Jackson put up his best passing performance of his career against the Lions. Improving on his last two games of highly efficient play, Jackson looked to throw deeper down the field and made a number of nice throws. Jackson again displayed good pocket presence, escaping from pressure five times. Jackson, while it does not show up in fantasy numbers, also displayed maturity by throwing the ball away when time in the pocket was running out, a skill he had not previously displayed. However, what did show up in the box score was important as he completed 75 percent of his passes, had his first 200 plus yard passing game, and had his first two touchdown passing game in his young career. His lone mistake was an interception near the Lions end zone. It appeared the receiver ran a different route than Jackson was throwing, but the game was well in hand by that point.

Week 14 - Jackson continued to play well, but also continued to do so without putting up significant numbers. Even though he completed over 60% of his passes, he threw for just 163 yards, though he did add in a touchdown. He did look sharp hitting receivers in stride, making quick decisions, scrambling for yardage when there were opportunities and throwing the ball away when necessary. His maturation as a quarterback continued, but with the big lead the Vikings were staked in the first half, he did not need to put up big numbers.

Week 15 - Jackson threw the ball well at times, but he also made some terrible decisions that nearly cost the Vikings the game. Jackson was very much in synch with WR Bobby Wade, his favorite target, and he also connected with WR Robert Ferguson for what was nearly a 72 yard TD pass (Ferguson was tackled at the one yard line). But Jackson also made some crazy passes, one a bad miss to a wide open Sidney Rice (who could have scored), and two others that were easily picked off. Jackson also bungled a handoff to Peterson in the first quarter that the Bears recovered and turned into a field goal.

Week 16 - Jackson had a rough start to the game, throwing an interception on his first passing attempt. He struggled throughout the first half as the Vikings offense looked out of synch. Jackson finally got going in the second half when they ran some inside routes against the eight man front of the Redskins.

Week 17 - Jackson started off the game slow, completing less than 50% of his passes in the first half. His numbers would have looked much better had Troy Williamson not dropped a wide open bomb down the middle that would have been a sure touchdown. Jackson did pick it up in the fourth quarter, rallying the Vikings to back to back touchdown drives (scoring the two point conversion for each). Jackson also did a good job protecting the ball until his fumble on the first play in overtime, which set up the Broncos game winning field goal.