Professional Career
Jackson had a well-traveled NFL career. The Dallas Cowboys selected him in the fourth round (109th pick overall) of the 1994 NFL Draft, but Jackson saw no playing time for the Cowboys during the 1994 season. In 1995, the NFL's two new expansion teams, the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, participated in the 1995 NFL Expansion Draft, an opportunity to pick unprotected players from the rosters of the existing NFL teams. The Jaguars picked Jackson from the Cowboys' unprotected list as the twenty-first overall pick in the expansion draft, and he played for the Jaguars for the following three seasons from 1995 to 1997, compiling 103 catches for 1,281 yards and ten touchdowns. He then played two seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1998 to 1999, but he saw little action and diminished production. Arguably his best two-year stint followed with the New Orleans Saints from 2000 to 2001, peaking with his best professional year in 2001—eighty-one catches for 1,046 yards and five touchdowns in sixteen starts. The following year with the Atlanta Falcons (2002), he saw little playing time and was traded to the Washington Redskins mid-season, finishing his career with his former college coach, Steve Spurrier, then head coach of the Redskins.
Jackson finished his eight-season NFL career with 284 receptions for 3,641 yards and twenty-four touchdowns.
Read more about this topic: Willie Jackson (American Football)
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