Earlier this week, we wrote about top-150 cornerbacks who are Green Bay Packers-type defensive backs in the 2026 NFL Draft class and who might actually be available for the team when they’re on the clock with the 53rd overall pick. Among those nine cornerbacks, the first to officially measure in at an all-star game this cycle is Alabama’s Domani Jackson.
So, that’s why we picked Jackson to be our first scouting report of the 2026 class here at Acme Packing Company. Based on current projections, the Packers
would need to take him with their third- or fourth-round pick in the draft. We’ll take you through his background and scouting report so you can decide if that’s a good idea or not.
Background
Jackson played high school football at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, one of the premier football programs in the country. Amon Ra-St. Brown, Quentin Lake and several former USC quarterbacks (Matt Barkley, Matt Leinart, Todd Marinovich, Bryce Young, etc.) all went to school there as preps.
Obviously, there is a strong USC pipeline at the program, but Jackson was originally a silent commit for Alabama before Lincoln Riley was hired to be the Trojans’ head coach. After the hiring, Jackson committed to USC two days after national signing day and early enrolled a couple of weeks later.
Despite tearing his ACL in the season-opening game of his senior year, Jackson was still considered to be a super recruit. By that point, he was a known commodity, as he had tied the state 100-meter record in California with a 10.25-second mark.
In the 2022 recruiting class, Jackson was ranked as the fifth-overall prospect on the 247Sports Composite, only behind the following players: Travis Hunter (2025 2nd overall pick), Walter Nolen (2025 16th overall pick), Luther Burden III (2025 39th overall pick) and Mykel Williams (2025 11th overall pick). He was just the second-ranked cornerback prospect, only behind Hunter.
As a freshman at USC, he only played 37 defensive snaps over five games and played seven games total, which exhausted a year of eligibility (to redshirt, you only play a maximum of five games in a season). As a sophomore, he grew into a starting outside cornerback role, playing 558 snaps at the position.
In 2024, after his original defensive coordinator, Alex Grinch, was fired, Jackson hopped in the transfer portal and finally made his way to Alabama. That year, Jackson was ranked as a four-star transfer by 247Sports, who listed him as the seventh overall cornerback in the portal. The Crimson Tide was losing two high draft pick cornerbacks, Terrion Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry, and needed to reload at the position post-Nick Saban.
As a junior, Jackson played 610 snaps at outside cornerback (7 in the slot). As a senior, though, that number dropped to 437 reps at cornerback. He ended up being the third-most played outside cornerback at Alabama, behind Zabien Brown and Dijon Lee Jr.
He played in all 15 games for the Crimson Tide, but this was the game-by-game breakdown:
- Florida State: 61
- Western Kentucky: 27
- Wisconsin: 39
- Georgia: 46
- Vanderbilt: 38
- Missouri: 22
- Tennessee: 44
- South Carolina: 29 (taken off the field in a cart for a rib injury)
- LSU: 12
- Oklahoma: 22
- Eastern Illinois: 18
- Auburn: 7
- Georgia (SECCG): 62
- Oklahoma (CFP): 45
- Indiana (Rose Bowl): 36
It’s not tough to figure this one out. Jackson injured his ribs, was given limited reps to end the regular season and then the team gave him a green light to play in the postseason. In the SEC Championship and two playoff games to end the year, Jackson played 41 more snaps (125) at outside cornerback than Lee (84), who out-snapped him in the regular season. He played 39.6 defensive snaps per game in the regular season before his injury, 17.6 from the game he was injured in through the end of the regular season and then 47.7 in the postseason.
Video
The clip above is all of the targets that Jackson received in the 2025 season.
Scouting Report
At the East-West Shrine Bowl, where Jackson measured in at 6005 and 192 pounds, he compared himself to 2023 17th overall pick Christian Gonzalez, who has a similar build (6013, 197). He also measured in with 9” hands (37th percentile among cornerbacks per Mockdraftable), 31” arms (34th percentile) and was an eighth-inch short of a 74” wingspan (22nd percentile).
Aside from the height and weight comparisons, though, Gonzalez, who many Packers fans wanted to be Green Bay’s 2023 first-round pick over defensive end Lukas Van Ness, had 9.5” hands, 32” arms and a nearly 77” wingspan. So Gonzalez was a little bigger than Jackson in just about every way.
If you read up on Jackson, everyone’s scouting report is fairly similar. He’s a good cover guy who is willing to lay out for a hard hit, but he also tends to struggle with taking a good angle, particularly in the run game.
Here is what Bleacher Report wrote about him after giving him a third-round grade:
— Jackson is a bigger corner who plays like it with physicality through the route and the length to impact the catch point.
…
— Recognizing the run game and path of the ball carrier will help keep him in the proper position. He allows runners outside and gives up explosive plays with hesitancy and poor pursuit angles.
For what it’s worth, this year, Pro Football Focus gave Jackson a 73.4 overall grade, which ranks 248th of 901 cornerbacks.
I see a guy who is probably a year away from being a starting cornerback at the NFL level, but he has the tools to get it done. With some good coaching, maybe he takes that jump up to starter in just one training camp, instead of two.
