Why the Buccaneers cut a standout who had a huge preseason game

Jackson among surprise Bucs cuts

Jackson, 24, was an undrafted free agent out of Iowa, playing six years of college football. He was with Virginia from 2019-22 before transferring to Iowa for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

Jackson proved during the preseason that he can stick around with a team, but the Bucs have a very deep linebacker room, so it was difficult to keep him with Lavonte David, SirVocea Dennis, Antonio Grier Jr. and Deion Jones ahead of him on the depth chart.

The Buccaneers should be willing to bring Jackson back on the practice squad if he chooses to return. There's a good chance Jackson could either get claimed or sign with another team's practice squad, but he may end up getting an opportunity to compete on another team for playing time.

Should Jackson return, he will have a chance to be called up on gameday three times during the season before he would have to sign with the 53-man roster off of the practice squad in order to play for the Bucs.

Jackson should be viewed as a special teams contributor early in his NFL career, but his preseason efforts prove that he has the potential to be a high-volume tackling linebacker.

There's still a lot up in the air for Jackson and the other hundreds of people being cut in the NFL this week, but there's hope that he will land back on his feet — whether that is in Tampa or not.