RELATED LINKS:–Jeffcoat Returning To University Of Texas This Weekend
–Jeffcoat Seizes Opportunity In First Career Start
For more from the team, including exclusive videos, photos and written content, be sure to ***“like” the Redskins’ Official Facebook page**. *
Redskins linebacker Jackson Jeffcoat remembers vividly the disappointment he felt nearly a year ago.
The Texas star, the nation's top defensive high school recruit, the one who earned Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, had gone undrafted.
After being told he might be a third or fourth round selection, he waited, and continued to do so all weekend. His name was never called.
"It hurt, because all that work I put in, all that work I did to be special, it felt like it didn't pay off," Jeffcoat, 23, said in an article recently published by ReportingTexas. "I'm not going to lie, I was very surprised. Very surprised and very angry."
Even with Jeffcoat's senior season, compiling 13 sacks and 22 tackles for a loss, which led the conference, he became just the second player in the 18-year history of the Big 12 that a Defensive Player of the Year went undrafted.
Jeffcoat got a look from the Seahawks later in Training Camp but was cut before the roster was finalized. That's when the Redskins reached out.
Initially signed to the practice squad, he worked his way to playing special teams on the active roster in mid-October but was demoted until the last two games of the season.
During the finale against the Cowboys, Jeffcoat started at linebacker and made the most of it, intercepting Tony Romo and finishing strong off a year that had at once held high expectations
"It felt great," Jeffcoat said. "Not just because it was against the Cowboys, but because it was just showing people, 'Hey, I can go out here and make plays. I was a playmaker in college, and I'll do it again in the NFL.'"
.
.
.
