Vikings' Star Defender Leads Breakout Team

Last year, pass rusher Andrew Van Ginkel had his breakout campaign after spending years in Miami as a rotational defender. He immediately made his impact felt in the Twin Cities with his pick-six in his first contest with the NFC North franchise. This offseason, he received a nice little raise.

Could a Vikings defender be this year’s Van Ginkel?

Candidates to be this year’s Van Ginkel are fellow pass rusher Dallas Turner and last year’s first-rounder J.J. McCarthy.

Another choice could be safety Theo Jackson. Pro Football Focus’ Bradley Locker included him in his 2025 all-breakout team. He named one player at each position. At safety, he picked Theo Jackson.

Locker wrote : “The Vikings concentrated the majority of their 2025 capital in their offensive and defensive lines, but safety is a position worth keeping an eye on this season. Jackson is poised to help ease those concerns.”

The Vikings entered the offseason with uncertainty at the safety position. Harrison Smith was expected to call it a career, and Cam Bynum was headed towards free agency. Backup Jackson was unsigned for 2025, too. Only Joshua Metellus remained on the roster with 2023 rookie Jay Ward.

Smith decided to give it another shot, and Jackson was re-signed ahead of free agency. The front office declined the option to add another safety in the draft or free agency, and then it’s a numbers game. Suddenly, Jackson climbs up the depth chart and is now expected to be the third guy in Brian Flores’ three-man safety rotation.

“On only 79 defensive snaps last season, Jackson shined with a 79.2 overall PFF grade and a stringent 77.1 PFF coverage grade,” Locker added. “In his three years with the Vikings, the former sixth-round pick has only played 222 total defensive snaps but has finished above a 69.0 PFF coverage grade in every season.”

Jackson has barely played on defense, showing that Bynum, Smith, and Metellus were fairly healthy in the last three seasons. Whenever he was asked to step up, though, he did a respectable job. The Vikes now bet that he can remain effective in a larger role.

“With Camryn Bynum no longer in Minnesota, the Vikings didn’t sign or draft someone to directly replace him. That leaves Jackson the next man up alongside Harrison Smith and Josh Metellus to play an important role in Brian Flores’ unique defense. After all, three Vikings safeties exceeded 1,000 snaps last season, which means Jackson very well may become a significant contributor for Flores,” Locker concluded.

Jackson, a Tennessee native, attended the University of Tennessee and was drafted by the hometown Titans in 2022. When Lewis Cine suffered his season-ending injury in his debut season, the Vikings needed another depth safety and found rookie Jackson on Tennessee’s practice squad.

Since then, he has been a premier backup and earned a ton of praise from teammates and coaches, but he had to wait for his opportunity.

In April, legendary safety Smith opened up to the media about his new safety-mate: “He’s always making plays. Literally from the day he got here, I was like ‘How did the Titans let him go?’ And that’s not to knock the Titans. He’s a good player, and sometimes the numbers just don’t work out. Sometimes guys need to get cut to play better; I’m not saying that’s this instance.”

Smith has seen safeties come and go over the years. In the last three seasons, Bynum was his wingman. Because there’s no real competition on the roster, Jackson is the logical successor.

More from Smith: “Everything I’ve seen from Theo is he’s got a lot of ability, he’s smart, he knows how to be a pro, which I think is very important, [considering] the length of a season, all the different roles you can play and whatever role he’s plugged into, special teams, starting role on defense or a few plays here or there on defense, he comes in, he does his job at a high level, he makes plays, he’s energetic. He’s big-time in my opinion.”

Jackson signed a three-year contract extension worth $9.365 million. There’s a good chance the 26-year-old will log his first career start in the 2025 campaign.

Editor’s Note: Information from PFF , Over The Cap , and Sports Reference helped with this article.

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