ESPN spoke with college coaches in every power conference and in the Group of 5 to build a list of sleepers outside the top 100 prospects for the 2025 NFL Draft. Among the 28 players in the group is Georgia defensive back Dan Jackson.
“He’ll be a guy who can be on all the [special] teams, can play safety or nickel,” a Georgia staff member said, according to ESPN. “He’s smart. You tell him to do something different one time, he’ll do it. You never have to worry about him.”
In late January, Jackson took park in the Reese’s Senior Bowl, the first opportunity for post-collegiate players to impress NFL scouts. Players voted for the top position players during an awards ceremony in Mobile, Alabama. The American team’s wide receivers and tight ends voted Georgia’s Dan Jackson as the top safety. Jackson beat out Oklahoma’s Billy Bowman, Tulane’s Caleb Ransaw, Maryland’s Dante Trader Jr., and Wisconsin’s Hunter Wohler for the honor. While Wohler and Trader are considered late Day 3 prospects by many analysts, Bowman has gotten projections in the early 4th round. That provided Jackson with some real momentum early in the draft evaluation process.
Somehow, Jackson was not among the 329 prospects invited to the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Then came Georgia’s Pro Day last month, where Jackson measured in at 6-foot, 194 pounds, and posted a 40-yard dash time of 4.46 and 4.48, a 34-inch vertical jump, a 10-foot, 3-inch broad jump, a 4.36 second short-shuttle, and a 7.12 3-cone drill time. Those testing numbers would have all ranked among the top 10 for safety participants at the combine. Jackson told Dawgs247’s Olivia Sayer after his performance that he hoped to provide himself to the scouts in attendance.
“I just want them to realize how much that I love the game,” Jackson said. “Sometimes you can tell by watching on film, but I feel like once they get to know me, they’ll realize that I don’t just like football. I love it, and I will for the rest of my life.”
Jackson played in all 14 games for Georgia during the 2024 season, making 13 starts and finishing third on the team with 64 tackles, along with two interceptions, five pass breakups, 1.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and one blocked punt. He earned Coaches All-SEC Third Team honors for the 2024 season as well. Jackson played in 47 games for Georgia, making 19 starts, and finishing his career with 140 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, four interceptions, nine pass breakups, three forced fumbles, two blocked kicks, and one fumble recovery, along with one 8-yard punt return.
He gave himself an early present for his 24th birthday, helping the Dawgs take down Georgia Tech in an eight-overtime thriller in November, making six tackles and two very clutch plays in his final game in Athens. Georgia trailed 27-20 with only 2:05 left in the fourth quarter. Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King had just completed a 13-yard pass to give his team a very favorable 3rd and 1. King, who had already run for over 100 yards and two touchdowns, knew that only a yard separated the Yellow Jackets from being able to run out the clock. Jackson knew that too, so the safety fired into the backfield and drove King back, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Chaz Chambliss.
“Oh, that was big,” cornerback Daylen Everette said. “Yeah, we definitely needed that. That was a big play. I’m proud of him for that.”
The Dawgs would score five plays later and force overtime. During the sixth overtime, with the 115th edition of ‘Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate’ transformed into a Black Friday two-point shootout, Jackson made another game-saving play as he sacked King to extend the rivalry matchup. Jackson heads into the SEC Championship next weekend with a career-high 43 tackles, two interceptions, and five pass deflections on the season. Smart noted after the win that ‘Dirty Dan’ took the path less traveled to play for the Dawgs.
“Man, to think that guy came to Georgia on his own, without us even recruiting him, and to make the plays he’s made,” Smart said. “That hit fumble will be one for the ages because he wasn’t just hitting a normal dude. That guy’s a competitor. A lot of respect for Dan. He didn’t even have to come back this year. He debated whether he was going to play football again this year. I think about where we’d be without him, just a lot of respect for him and his leadership. Really, all these kids that want to go and transfer and change and do all this, look at a guy like Dan Jackson. He is what college football is all about, guys. He’s not asking for more money. He’s not trying to go somewhere else. The guy just loves Georgia.”
Linebacker Jalon Walker, who also had six tackles in the game, acknowledged Jackson was crucial late for Georgia.
“Very big,” Walker said. “Like, he knew he had to leave all of it on the line for his senior — his last game of his senior year in Sanford Stadium.”
