Jacob Phillips (born April 1, 1999) is an

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 with ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

(LSU) and was drafted by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

in the third round of the

2020 NFL Draft The 2020 NFL Draft was the 85th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2020 NFL season. The first round was held on April 23, followed by the second and third rounds on April 24. The d ...

Early years

Phillips attended East Nashville Magnet High School in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

. As a senior in 2016, he was selected Tennessee Mr. Football and played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. He was a semifinalist for the 2016 Butkus Award, which is given to the nation's top high school linebacker. A five-star recruit, Phillips was originally committed to play

at the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

but flipped the commitment to

(LSU).

College career

As a true freshman at LSU in 2017, Phillips played in 12 games, recording 18 tackles. As a sophomore in 2018, he started 11 of 12 games and finished the season with 87 tackles and a sack. Phillips returned as a starter his junior year in 2019. Following a junior season where he led the team in tackles, Phillips announced that he would forgo his senior year and declared for the

Professional career

Cleveland Browns

Phillips was drafted by the

in the third round with the 97th overall pick of the 2020 NFL Draft. The Browns previously acquired this selection from the

by trading

Duke Johnson Randy "Duke" Johnson Jr. (born September 23, 1993) is an American football running back for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round (77th overall) of the 2015 NFL Draft. ...

to Houston. Phillips was placed on the reserve/

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

list by the team on December 26, 2020, and activated on December 31. On September 1, 2021, Phillips was placed on injured reserve with a biceps injury. He was activated on December 11. Phillips entered the 2022 season as the backup middle linebacker behind Anthony Walker. He became the starter in Week 4 following an injury to Walker. He started the next four games before being placed on injured reserve on October 26, 2022, after suffering a pectoral injury in Week 7. On August 13, 2023, Phillips was placed on injured reserve.

Houston Texans

On April 23, 2024, Phillips signed a one-year deal with the

for $1.15 million.

NFL career statistics

Regular season

References

External links

Cleveland Browns bioLSU Tigers bio
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Jacob 1999 births Living people Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee American football linebackers LSU Tigers football players Cleveland Browns players Houston Texans players