One of the only other Tennessee Titans players who has been given nearly as much grief as quarterback Marcus Mariota this season is cornerback Adoree’ Jackson.
His failed attempt to field the punt early on against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday was a direct cause of quarterback Gardner Minshew and his offense getting to the scoreboard early.
“I wanted to fair catch it,” Jackson told reporters, “but the water hit my eye. It got blurry. So I just didn’t find the ball. No excuse for that, though. Should have just at least tried to – you know how they say catch the sun? At least catch what I seen, but it just didn’t go that way. So that’s on me.”
But even after this and all of Jackson’s previous blunders fielding punts, the Titans will continue to use him as a return man.
“I think we’re going to focus on improving in that unit,” Mike Vrabel said. “That’s something we have to improve on and I would say that there’s been accountability there. We’ll look to work in guys as we see fit. He’ll be there in some capacity.”
Vrabel is confident in Jackson’s ability to get better on special teams.
“We feel like he’s got a skill set that can help us. I know he had some plays on Thursday he’d like to have back. Only thing we can concentrate now on is improving it and moving forward.”
The Titans will take on the Atlanta Falcons next at noon CT on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
