Vikings rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson does not lack confidence. That's a good sign. You need a certain type of mentality to thrive at one of the game's toughest positions, where you're often on an island against dynamic receivers. Jackson was a fourth-round pick and the 14th corner taken in this draft, but you won't be convincing him that any of the 13 picked before him are better players.
"You got the best corner, by far," Jackson told Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah on the phone call where he found out he was getting picked. "Imma show you, day one."
The Vikings and the rest of the NFL took notice of Jackson last fall when he was playing at a very high level for an excellent Oregon team. The 6'4", 24-year-old corner earned an 80.5 PFF grade in 2023, allowing 19 catches on 38 targets with just one touchdown, three interceptions, and ten total passes defended. It was quite the breakout year for a player who took an unorthodox journey to get to this point.
Jackson didn't have the grades to play D1 football after high school, so he went to a junior college in Arizona in 2017. But before the season even started, the Maryland native got homesick and left school. He gave up on football for a couple years, working at a local grocery store and training for NBA 2K tournaments. Jackson was eventually convinced to give the sport another shot in 2019. He played at a community college in Kansas, where he started to receive some FBS attention. He then transferred to East Mississippi Community College (the school from Netflix's 'Last Chance U' show), but the season was cancelled because of the pandemic.
In 2021, Jackson committed to play for Nick Saban at Alabama, but he spent the next two seasons as a backup who primarily played on special teams. Last year, in his seventh year out of high school, he transferred to Oregon and played like one of the best corners in the country. At 6'4", he has rare length, which helps him jam receivers at the line of scrimmage and make plays on the ball. He also plays with the competitive fire that all of the game's best corners have. The Vikings took notice of that when they met with Jackson at the Senior Bowl this year.
"He already has a lot of confidence," SVP of Player Personnel Ryan Grigson said. "At the Senior Bowl, that was very evident when we sat down with him, the belief he has in himself. I think Flo (Brian Flores) likes that because that's something you can't fake."
"I just told them I was the best corner in the draft," Jackson said of that meeting. "And I told them they were probably going to be getting me for cheaper because of some of the politics that go into it. I told them that, I just was being honest, I felt confident in my ability. I felt like the numbers spoke for themselves. I was in a very pass-heavy conference this year. I think I showed versus a lot of top-tier quarterbacks and receivers what I could do."
Jackson said that the path he took, being away from the game and then going the junior college route, taught him about perseverance and made him who he is today. He believes he's better because of it. And he absolutely believes that the Vikings got a steal by taking him in the fourth round of this year's draft.
"I think my confidence comes from the work," Jackson said. "I watched a lot of the names that got called before me recently in this draft, and I feel like if you were just watching last season, maybe it shouldn't have went like that. But now I get my own chance to control the narrative again."
Jackson, who turns 25 this year, only has one year of FBS starting experience under his belt, so he still has plenty to learn. But 6'4" cornerbacks with skill and athleticism don't grow on trees. Jackson, who landed in a great spot with Vikings coaches Brian Flores and Daronte Jones, has the physical tools to become something in the NFL. He also has the type of confidence where there's no doubt in his mind that he's going to make it happen.
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