Curtis

Jacobs

Baker was an early standout in training camp, but tailed off in August as drops became an issue. He made headlines for the wrong reasons last week after going live on Instagram to complain about being pulled over by police in Boston. Head coach Jerod Mayo said Baker has already been punished and that it wouldn’t impact his game status. Nevertheless, Baker is a healthy inactive while Kayshon Boutte is active. Baker is buried on the Patriots’ wide receiver depth chart at the moment.

After playing only 64 total snaps during his freshman season, Jacobs (6’1/241) would slide into the starting WLB role in 2021 and proceed to cement himself in that position until he declared for the 2024 NFL draft. During the 2023 season he had 49 total tackles, an impressive 9.0 TFL’s, and 2.5 sacks. Jacobs showed flashes of promise as a blitzer on tape, but posted a woeful 55.8 PFF grade against the run, reflecting his inconsistency. Jacobs will likely continue to struggle with this at the next level which will cap his potential ceiling. In addition to being an inconsistent run defender, Jacobs needs to improve as a tackler. While his 12.5% missed tackle rate in 2023 is not alarming, he had a PFF run defense grade less than 50 in nearly a third of his games this year. In pass coverage, the Maryland native has the size and long speed to keep up with backs and tight ends, but failed to materialize this with any sort of production, allowing completions on 12-of-15 targets.

Jacobs is the third player to commit to Penn State in 2020, and the second four-star linebacker to commit with Derek Wingo being the other. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound backer ranks eighth among players in the state of Maryland (McDonagh Hills HS, Owen Hills), and 32nd at his outside linebacker position. Penn State lost a ton of defensive talent in 2018 and will lose more next year, so adding premium talents like Jacobs will go a long way towards keeping PSU among the powers in the Big Ten.