Colts’ Jackson adjusts to new role as full-time CB

TERRE HAUTE – Before last season, Marlin Jackson had started one NFL game.\nNow, with key defensive starters lost to free agency, he’s a full-time starting cornerback for the defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts and a team leader who is expected to help mentor younger players.\nThe departures of Nick Harper and Jason David left Jackson and Kelvin Hayden as the team’s most experienced cornerbacks.\nCoach Tony Dungy said he believes both are ready to blossom and help second-year defensive backs Tim Jennings and T.J. Rushing and rookies Daymeion Hughes and Michael Coe develop. More pressure will be on Jackson, who has 10 career starts to Hayden’s one.\n“They’re looking forward to showing they can handle things and kind of guide the younger guys that we’ve got back there,” Dungy said after Friday morning’s practice.\nJackson has bounced between cornerback and safety because of injuries to others the past two years. After seeing limited work as a rookie in 2005, Jackson started eight regular-season games last year at safety, then started once in the playoffs at cornerback. His last-second interception of a Tom Brady pass sealed the Colts’ 38-34 win over New England in the AFC championship game.\nNow, Jackson is practicing full-time at cornerback, and Dungy thinks that’s good.\n“If we can get him zeroed in at one spot, he’s got a chance to be a really good player,” Dungy said. “He loves to play. That’s the thing that you notice.”\nJackson said he learned from Harper before he left for the Tennessee Titans and hopes to pass his knowledge along.\n“He was a guy who really worked hard in the weight room and on conditioning,” Jackson said. “He watched a ton of film, and he really understood the whole aspect of playing corner – recognizing routes, formations. I really picked up all that stuff from him.”\nJackson, 6-foot and 196 pounds, said once he learned he’d be a starting cornerback, he focused on running and showed up to camp in the best condition of his career.\nJackson has been switching between cornerback and safety since playing college football at Michigan. He was a cornerback his sophomore year, a safety as a junior and a cornerback as a senior. Now, he needs to regain the mental sharpness of being a full-time cornerback.\n“It takes you a while to get your technique back,” he said. “If you’re a safety, you’re not used to always being down and covering somebody all the time. The switching is a negative and a positive sometimes.”\nJackson said playing safety improved his awareness as a cornerback. He said he notices personnel more than a normal cornerback would, and can anticipate a formation quickly after an opponent breaks the huddle. He’ll need those safety skills when he defends slot receivers in nickel packages.\n“I look at myself as a football player,” he said. “When I’m on the outside, I’m a corner. When I’m on the inside, I’m a corner with a safety’s mentality.”\nWith four new starters on defense, the Colts will spend much of training camp trying to build a cohesive unit.\n“We need to go out there and get used to playing together,” he said. “Just get on the same page, and when we get to the regular season, just start running right away.”\nThe Colts struggled defensively last season before improving in playoff wins over Kansas City and Baltimore and the Super Bowl win against Chicago. Jackson said the Colts want to play well all season, but the new starters will have to come through for that to happen.\n“We went through the regular season and played horrible run defense,” he said. “We didn’t have the energy we needed to be out there and be a good defense in the NFL. We definitely want to go out there and prove that we can play the way we played in the playoffs all season.”