Cecil Carlon Shorts III (born December 22, 1987) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

wide receiver. He attended Collinwood High School in Cleveland, Ohio, and later the

University of Mount Union The University of Mount Union is a private university in Alliance, Ohio. Founded in 1846, the university was affiliated with the Methodist Church until the spring of 2019. In the fall of 2020, Mount Union had an enrollment of 1,958 undergraduate ...

, where he played for the Mount Union Purple Raiders football team. He was drafted by the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

in the fourth round of the 2011 NFL Draft.

Early years

Shorts attended Collinwood High School in Cleveland, Ohio, where he played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

on the football team that his father, Cecil Shorts, Jr., coached.

College career

During his freshman season, Shorts suffered an injury that kept him from playing the entire year. In 2007, he was the backup quarterback, along with Kurt Rocco, to Greg Micheli, but was 16 of 24 passing for 209 yards, made 12 receptions, three for a touchdown, for 289 and ran for 108 yards with two touchdowns in 14 games played. Shorts switched to wide receiver after

Pierre Garçon Pierre Andre Garçon (; born August 8, 1986) is a former American Football wide receiver. He played college football at Norwich University and Mount Union College, and was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the sixth round of the 2008 NFL Dra ...

graduated, and immediately became the top receiver for Mount Union. In 2008, Shorts caught 77 passes for 1,484 yards and 23 touchdowns, which set an

Ohio Athletic Conference The Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) was formed in 1902 and is the third oldest athletic conference in the United States. Its current commissioner is Sarah Otey. Former commissioners include Mike Cleary, who was the first General Manager of a profe ...

record. Shorts helped Mount Union win their 10th NCAA Division III National Championship, at Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl XXXVI. In 2009, he was named the D3Football.com National Offensive Player of the Year after recording 100 receptions for 1,736 yards with 19 touchdowns. For his efforts, he earned ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

'' first-team Little All-America honors following the season. In the 2009

NCAA Division III National Football Championship The NCAA Division III Football Championship began in 1973. The Division III playoffs begin with 32 teams selected to participate in the Division III playoffs. The Division III championship game, known as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl or Stagg Bowl ...

on December 19, 2009 against the UW–Whitewater Warhawks, Shorts caught 10 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns. The Purple Raiders lost, however, by a score of 38–28. In 2010, Shorts' play was hampered by an ankle injury that prevented him from playing in three games. He finished the season with 18 receiving touchdowns, three return touchdowns and one rushing touchdown. He earned ''Associated Press'' first-team Little All-America honors for the second consecutive year following the season. Shorts had 4,705 receiving yards for 63 touchdowns in his career. He was considered a top wide receiver prospect in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Professional career

Jacksonville Jaguars

Shorts was drafted by the

with the 114th overall pick (4th round) in the 2011 NFL Draft. Shorts is the highest drafted player in Mount Union history and first player drafted by the Jaguars from a

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

school in franchise history. Shorts played sparingly in his rookie season, catching only two passes for 30 yards and a touchdown in 10 games. He missed the final six games in 2011 with a hamstring injury. In 2012, despite Jacksonville sharing an NFL-worst record of 2–14 with the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The ...

, Shorts was a bright spot, leading the team in receiving yards (979), yards per reception (17.8), and touchdowns (7), with five touchdowns going for 40 yards or longer. He was placed on season-ending injured reserve on December 24, 2012 due to a concussion. In 2013, Shorts recorded 66 catches for 777 yards and three touchdowns. He was placed on injured reserve on December 17, 2013 with a groin injury. Shorts caught 53 catches for 577 yards and 1 touchdown. Shorts became a free agent after the 2014 season.

Houston Texans

On March 16, 2015, Shorts signed a two-year, $6 million contract with the Houston Texans. On November 22, 2015, Shorts threw a touchdown pass to running back Alfred Blue on a trick play against the New York Jets. On June 18, 2016, Shorts signed a pay cut reducing his salary to $1.2 million with $750,000 in bonuses. On September 3, 2016, he was released by the Texans.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

On September 6, 2016, Shorts was signed by the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

. He was placed on injured reserve on December 6, 2016 after tearing his ACL,

MCL The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3) ...

, and PCL.

NFL statistics

References

External links

Mount Union Purple Raiders football bioJacksonville Jaguars bioHouston Texans bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shorts, Cecil 1987 births Living people Players of American football from Cleveland American football wide receivers American football quarterbacks American football return specialists Mount Union Purple Raiders football players Jacksonville Jaguars players Houston Texans players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players