Safety Tanard Jackson will be trying to get his career back on track this summer when he goes to training camp with the Redskins after spending the last two seasons on the outside looking in after being suspended by the NFL for a third time.
It will be an uphill fight for Jackson to land on the 53-man roster, but he has a couple of things working for him.
Jackson is playing for defensive backs coach Raheem Morris, who was the head coach in Tampa while Jackson was there, and that long relationship should help him as he fights for a spot this summer. Fellow safety Ryan Clark predicted that Jackson will “be awesome this year,” but Jackson’s experiences the last two years have stopped him from assuming that he’ll just pick up where he left off.
“Going from playing football to working in a warehouse at a 9-to-5 job is a humbling experience,” Jackson said, via the Tampa Tribune. “It’s taught me to never take anything in this business for granted.”
Clark, Brandon Meriweather, Bacarri Rambo and Philip Thomas will be the competition for playing time in Washington, although Jackson’s own rustiness after such a long spell on the shelf may loom larger when it comes time to set the final roster.