Jonah Jackson is done with the marathon video game sessions, at least for now. The late-night “Call of Duty” battles with his brother are on hold, and he won’t be going to the Taylor Swift concert this weekend. at Ford Field
As a new father, Jackson has more important things on his mind.
The Detroit Lions offensive lineman and his fiancée, Emily, welcomed their first child — daughter Lilah — last month, and the two are busy getting ready for their wedding in July.
Things have changed in the best of ways for Jackson, though football remains a central concern in his life.
“Once I found out (I was going to be a father) it was kind of like, ‘I’m going to a big year, it’s time to (buck) up,’ and I’ve approached it the same way I have, just a little more attention to detail,” Jackson told the Free Press at mandatory minicamp this week. “I can’t be leaving food on the counter, baby can grab it. Just paying a little more attention to detail, and that carries both off the field and onto the field. Yeah, the responsibility’s definitely kicked up a little bit.”
At home, Jackson has traded screen time for skin time, holding his daughter close every chance he gets.
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The couple has a night nurse, so Jackson’s sleep schedule has not been disrupted too much. But Jackson said he tries to get his daughter from her crib when she wakes every morning before he goes to work and then again when he gets home at night.
“I hold her, chill with her for a little bit and then she goes with mom,” Jackson said. “She’s hungry. She’s a growing girl. I think she was in, like, I want to say the 90th percentile in weight. She can eat. She’s like her dad. She gets it from me.”
Entering his fourth NFL season, Jackson has emerged as a key figure on one of the NFL’s best offensive lines.
He made the Pro Bowl in 2021, when he played more offensive snaps than every Lion but Penei Sewell, and had an even better year last year once he recovered from an early-season finger injury.
The Lions will enter this fall as the favorite to win the NFC North, and their line is perhaps the biggest reason why. Along with Jackson, the Lions return three other Pro Bowl-caliber starters in Sewell, Taylor Decker and Frank Ragnow — all of whom recently became or are expectant first-time fathers — and expect to get veteran right guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai back from back surgery.
Ragnow, Decker and Vaitai have been limited participants in formal offseason workouts, but Jackson said the unit has embraced the heightened expectations for it and the team this fall.
“Same thing we had last year,” he said. “(We expect to be) firing on all cylinders and just capitalize on everything, not making any mistakes, and when the game’s on our shoulders we’re making sure we finish it. Especially, the game starts up front and what better five would you want to do it with?”
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The Lions have most of that quintet locked up on multi-year deals.
Decker and Sewell are under contract through 2024; the Lions hold a fifth-year option on Sewell for 2025, but surely will try to sign him to a long-term contract before then. And Ragnow is signed through 2026.
Jackson, a third-round pick in 2020, is eligible for a contract extension this offseason and, as one of the best guards in the NFL, is closing in on a life-changing deal. He said late last season he wanted to retire a Lion, and he reiterated that sentiment Wednesday.
“I love this city,” Jackson said. “I have a great time here. I enjoy everything about it. The sports, the people, the cuisine. There’s nothing like it.”
So far, Jackson and the Lions have not had any meaningful contract negotiations, but Jackson said the two sides will open talks “probably after OTAs.”
For now, that’s the least of his concerns, and with a new baby at home, a winter honeymoon to plan for and training camp right around the corner, that’s not likely to change.
“Being with these guys, I’m not even thinking about whatever that is, I’m just thinking about doing this,” Jackson said. “Hopefully we get a ring. … If you win, everything falls into place. If you what you’re supposed to do, everything will fall into place. You can’t worry about that stuff.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.