EAGAN, Minn. -- Donovan Jackson was the Minnesota Vikings' first-round draft choice last month, which by definition means he fits three criteria the team seeks in all players. Based on the Vikings' evaluation, Jackson -- the likely starter at left guard -- is smart, tough and loves football.
Coach Kevin O'Connell and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah have repeated that mantra often during their three-year tenure in Minnesota. To be fair, it is not original to them. Many teams use similar parameters, and in some cases the same words, to describe their most desired traits. But the process of identifying those qualities has changed amid the new NIL landscape of college football -- especially whether a player truly loves the game. So it has been notable to hear the Vikings' explicit praise of Jackson's decision last season to accept Ohio State's midseason request to switch positions and play left tackle.
"There are little things that sometimes jump out at you about a player," O'Connell said. "[Jackson's] willingness to jump over to the left tackle spot ... he didn't necessarily need to do that in a year where he was going to be drafted and evaluated the way he was."
College football players have gained new power and leverage amid NIL payments and what amounts to unregulated free agency. And Ohio State's request -- yes, he was given a choice -- had the potential to be harmful to Jackson's future. He had considered entering the 2024 draft, but instead returned to Ohio State and was in the process of solidifying himself as a first-round pick when the school's top two left tackles suffered injuries. The request came days before the Buckeyes were scheduled to play at Penn State, where he would face the No. 3-ranked team in the country and standout pass rusher Abdul Carter. In a worst-case scenario, he could sink his draft stock with a poor conclusion to his final season, even if it was easily explained by the position change.
As corny as it might sound, the Vikings interpreted Jackson's decision as clear evidence of a player who loves football.
"You talk about selflessness within a team," Adofo-Mensah said. "These are all things that we say with words, but I think he showed with action in a big year for him, switching out to left tackle for his team as they went on that march [to the national championship], that journey for confetti."
The decision, both Jackson and his father acknowledge, was agonizing. When Buckeyes coach Ryan Day and then-offensive line coach Justin Frye first proposed the change, Jackson recalled, his initial reaction was to laugh. He hadn't played left tackle since his time at Episcopal [Texas] High School, and Ohio State hadn't given him a single practice rep there during three previous seasons in Columbus.
"I was kind of like, 'You serious?'" Jackson said. "When they told me, I was like, 'You guys have to be joking.' And then coach Day didn't smile. So I kind of figured, 'Oh, wow, he's actually serious.' So I wrestled with it."
Day gave Jackson a day to think about it. Jackson talked through the options with other members of the Ohio State program. He phoned his parents, Todd and Melanie, and contemplated various scenarios with his agent.
"It was the exact same spiel," Jackson said. "If you do well, this might happen. If you do bad, this might happen."
"As we were having those conversations," Todd Jackson said, "he's thinking, 'What if I mess up? What if I look bad? What if I give up a sack?' I said, 'Yes, but what if you do well? What if you actually hold your own even better? What if you guys win the game because of your actions?' And that's when it kind of started to spin a little differently."
Ohio State had presented the request as an option, which in theory Jackson could have declined. In the age of player empowerment, some might have. But as Todd Jackson spoke further with his son, the father came to understand the deft nature of Day's approach.
"They knew Donovan and they know how he's wired," Todd Jackson said. "They knew how driven to compete and to win he is. So I think they realized that making the case and putting it in front of him, he would come back with the choice that they were expecting. But they also want to build his buy-in by having him come to that realization, versus being told, 'Here's what you're doing on Saturday.'"
Jackson accepted the switch the following day. He surrendered two sacks and three pressures against Penn State, but the Buckeyes won 20-13 to keep their national championship hopes alive. Jackson had soon dropped his weight from 325 pounds to 315 pounds, Todd Jackson said, to give himself additional mobility on the edge, and Donovan Jackson allowed only one additional pressure and no sacks the remainder of the season as the team marched to the title.
In the process, former Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said at the time, "What he did is [he] actually improved his draft stock."
The Vikings don't envision Jackson as a left tackle, not with starter Christian Darrisaw entering the prime of his career, and not even in a pinch after signing veteran swing tackle Justin Skule. But his journey provided a final insight into the draft investment they decided to make, one that reverberated not only with their front office and coaches, but with his new teammates as well.
Veteran right tackle Brian O'Neill and his wife had dinner with Jackson, his girlfriend and Jackson's parents during a post-draft visit to Minnesota. Among other things, they discussed Jackson's position change, which for O'Neill brought to mind a nerve-wracking experience of his own. Shortly before the start of the 2020 season, Vikings coaches approached O'Neill and told him he would be their new left tackle if negotiations to restructure starter Riley Reiff's contract failed.
"I was freaking out," O'Neill said, "and I had played it in college. I was like, 'That's not going to go well for anybody involved.' So I have a ton of respect for somebody to be able to do that."
Ultimately, the Vikings drafted Jackson because they think he can be their long-term answer at left guard, a position that has vexed them since Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson departed in 2011.
They had ways to measure whether Jackson was smart and tough.
Does he love football, though?
A selfless and potentially self-destructive decision last season helped make up their minds in his favor.