Great Article on Jackson

This is what we need in the offseason -- many fewer mock drafts and many more in-depth looks at players when they're not caught up in the rush of the regular season. 

Thanks to wingheads for pointing out this great article about Jamaal Jackson's commitment to offseason conditioning.  Some highlights (but the whole thing is worth reading):

With the NFL draft six days away, Jackson is convinced Eagles coach Andy Reid, the kahuna on all draft decisions, is ripe to pluck Jackson's successor, or at least someone capable of pushing for his job.

And since he still accepts a sizable portion of blame for last season's 8-8 record and playoff absence, Jackson figured he'd better be ready for the fight.

That began, he said, with wholesale changes in diet and exercise to better tune his 6-foot-4 physique, which was listed at 330 pounds last season.

"I was always working out and running and doing stuff I needed to do to get in shape," he said. "But that's only 50 percent of it. The other 50 comes from dieting and eating right. That's one thing I didn't do [last offseason]. I'd work out hard in the afternoon, and then get, like, a sundae or something."

...

Regardless, Jackson still is haunted by last season's letdowns, and despite the seven-year contract extension he signed in 2006 on the eve of training camp -- a deal that led to incumbent center Hank Fraley being traded to Cleveland -- Jackson believes he can lose the job as quickly as he earned it.

All it takes is one hungry, dedicated prospect with the same shoulder chip Jackson carried in 2003, when all 32 teams bypassed him in the draft. Maybe it will be Cole. Maybe it will be someone Reid drafts next weekend.

"I could go out tomorrow and break my ankle. I won't be here next year," Jackson said. "They can draft somebody and it can be, 'Well, let's just throw him in there.' Like they did with me."

...

Jackson recalled a sack he allowed to Justin Tuck in the first quarter, the first of New York's 12 and Tuck's two. Tuck had lined up across from Jackson, worked a move to the outside but spun quickly back inside. Jackson couldn't regain his footing in time and watched Tuck breeze by before taking down McNabb.

That's when the alarm sounded.

"I tried to recover, but I couldn't recover," Jackson said, "which was a lack of not being in better shape."