Written By Intern Justin
Tyree Jackson has had a long journey to the NFL. The 6-foot-7 man from Michigan went from
two-star high school quarterback to NFL tight end, but it certainly wasn’t easy. He’s had more
bumps in the road than most NFLers, but he still pushed forward and proved he could make it in
the big leagues.
High School Career
Jackson, born on November 7, 1997 in Norton Shores, MI, played high school football at Mona
Shores High School. Jackson accumulated 5,555 total yards and 63 total touchdowns over his
junior and senior seasons.
Jackson left his mark on Michigan high school football, setting multiple records. He currently sits seventh all-time for passing yards, ninth in completions and sixth in passing touchdowns.
Despite his impressive play in the Wolverine State, ESPN rated him a two-star recruit and the sixth-best QB in the state of Michigan. Despite this, Jackson received offers from three Division I Michigan schools: Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan. Jackson did end up picking a MAC school, but to much surprise went out of state to the University at Buffalo.
College Career
2016
Jackson enrolled in 2015 and won the starting job in 2016 as a redshirt freshman. He saw his first action in a brutal loss against Albany on September 2. Grant Rohach started the game, but after a few lackluster drives, he got replaced by Jackson who brought the offense to life.
Jackson stepped in and provided points for the team on three straight drives. He played well, but late in the fourth quarter, the wheels fell off for him. He fumbled on the goal line with less than four minutes left and then threw a pick on the first play of his final drive. On the bright side for the freshman Jackson, he picked up 185 total yards and a passing touchdown after stepping in for senior QB Grant Rohach.
The rest of Jackson’s first year was a season-long growing pain. He went 2-7 and suffered a right leg injury against Miami (OH) which caused him to miss the final two games of the season. His 1:1 TD-INT ratio at 9-9 led much to be desired, but he established himself as the starter going into his sophomore year.
2017
Jackson’s sophomore season proved to be a huge step up from his redshirt freshman year.
He had the first winning season from a Bulls quarterback since 2013. Unfortunately, UB still finished at a .500 winning percentage since Jackson missed a month with a knee injury. The Bulls went 1-3 in those games without Jackson. Drew Anderson, Jackson’s backup, played well in relief. Anderson actually had a 597-yard, seven-touchdown game against Western Michigan, but his lackluster record showed that the team still needed Jackson to win.
When the 6-foot-7 field general returned, he came back guns a-blazing. In his return at Akron, he set a career-high in passing yards with 313 and he threw the ball 50 times. Buffalo lost the game by a single point, as Adam Mitcheson missed a 46-yard field goal with less than two minutes left.
In the next three games, he continued to show promise, going undefeated and passing for 1,050 yards, nine touchdowns and only one interception. Though the Bulls couldn’t make a bowl game, they were going in the right direction. Thanks to Jackson going 5-3 and averaging 262 passing yards a game with a +9 TD-INT ratio, the Bulls looked to be in great position for 2018.
2018
Jackson’s junior year was one of the best years from a UB Bulls quarterback EVER. The
Michigan native threw for 3,131 yards and 28 TDS; both second all-time single-season records
for the program.
In Week 1, Jackson tied a Bulls record with six touchdown passes against Delaware State. The record-tying performance wasn’t his best game of the season, though. Jackson put up three games of more than 275 pass yards and three touchdowns.
Arguably his best game of the year came against Miami (OH) in Week 10. Jackson threw for 358 yards and three TDs and added 3 scores on the ground against the RedHawks. The final score was 51-42 and he extended UB’s overall record to 8-1 and MAC record to 5-0.
Jackson’s Bulls went on to the MAC Championship game against Northern Illinois in a tightly contested game that ended in a one-point loss by the Bulls.
Since they had the best regular season record in their conference in 2018, they still made a bowl game. Buffalo played against Troy in the Dollar General Bowl in Mobile, AL. Jackson played well, but he wasn’t good enough to secure a bowl victory for the Bulls. Down 35-32, he had a chance for a game-winning drive, but he fumbled on the first play of the drive and gave the Trojans great field position. The Bulls didn’t score for the rest of the game and Troy won 42-32. Jackson had 274 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Little did UB fans know that the Dollar General Bowl would be the last game played in Jackson’s college career. He declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft on Jan 6, 2019. Jackson finished his tenure fourth all-time in passing yards and completions, sixth in completion percentage, third in passing touchdowns and fifth in passer rating for the school. Jackson also won MAC Offensive Player of the Year for 2018.
First Stint in the NFL
After going undrafted in the 2019 NFL Draft, Jackson stayed close to his alma mater and
signed with the Buffalo Bills on April 27, 2019.
He competed for the backup job with veteran Matt Barkley. Barkley was in his second year with the Bills, his sixth NFL team, and Jackson was still trying to prove himself NFL-ready. Unfortunately for Jackson, it looked like Barkley was the better choice to relieve Josh Allen. Barkley led the Bills in passing for the three games that he played and showed the difference between a savvy veteran and an undrafted rookie.
Jackson had Week 4 of the preseason all to himself, however. He started the whole game in a
win against the Vikings’ backups and put up the most passing yards by a Bills QB in that
preseason. But alas, Jackson couldn’t make the final 53-man roster and was cut on August 31.
He racked up 425 total yards, two total TDs and two turnovers in the preseason. The road looked bleak at this point in his career, but he didn’t give up.
XFL
On January 25, 2018, the XFL it was making a return after just one season in 2001. The XFL
gave a chance to a lot of players whose careers didn’t pan out in the NFL. The XFL’s new
season planned to take place in 2020.
The XFL’s DC Defenders drafted Tyree Jackson on October 15, 2019. He had another chance to play football on national TV, but he faced another roadblock; he wasn’t the starting QB. Cardale Jones, another former Bills QB, had already been assigned as the team’s quarterback before the draft. So, Jackson was looking on from the sideline for the first couple weeks.
Then, Week 5 came along and DC came off back-to-back losses where they put up a combined nine points. The struggling Jones had been benched for Jackson and he led them to a 15-6 victory over the St. Louis BattleHawks. In the game, he completed nine-of-fourteen attempts for 64 yards and a touchdown pass to Khari Lee, also a former Bill.
The future looked bright for Jackson, but yet another thing went wrong that derailed his path to
the NFL. COVID-19 caused many leagues, including the XFL, to shut down. Unfortunately for
the many football players relying on it, the XFL never came back in 2021.
That left hundreds of football players without jobs and it forced them to find work somewhere else. A lucky few did find a way to make it from the XFL to the NFL. P.J. Walker, Josh Johnson and Taylor Heinicke are some XFLers that currently still have jobs in the NFL.
Walker, Johnson and Heinicke still play the quarterback position in the league, but sometimes players are forced to change positions to make it in the NFL. Terrelle Pryor went from quarterback to wide receiver after failing to find an NFL job as a passer. Pryor became a 1,000-yard receiver in 2016 and played for six total seasons in the NFL, proving that former QBs can still find a place in this league at some level.
Switch to TE and Return to the NFL
Jackson, much like Pryor, became forced to change his position and found his way onto an NFL
roster. On January 7, 2021, the Philadelphia Eagles signed him to a reserve/futures contract as a tight end.
During training camp, Jackson looked impressive and seemed on the right track to secure a roster spot on Philadelphia. Yet another unlucky break went his way in training camp when he got injured. Jackson suffered a fractured bone in his back on August 17 and it put him out of commission for 11 weeks. Jackson had been on injured reserve since September 2, but he’d been praised over other young TEs in the Eagles organization.
He’s the TE2 on the Eagles currently and saw his first action in months against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 9. On his 24th birthday, he didn’t record a catch, but he’s in a much better situation than he was a year ago.