Jaxson Kirkland (born July 30, 1998) 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 ...

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

for the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

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 ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Early life and high school

Kirkland grew up in

Camas, Washington Camas is a city in Clark County, Washington, with a population of 26,065 at the 2020 census. The east side of town borders the city of Washougal, Washington, and the west side of town borders Vancouver, Washington. Camas lies along the Washing ...

and attended Jesuit High School. He was rated a three-star recruit and initially committed to play college football at UCLA during the summer before his senior year. Kirkland decommitted from UCLA at the end of his senior football season and ultimately signed a letter of intent to play at Washington over an offer from Oregon.

College career

Kirkland

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

his true freshman season at Washington. He was named the Huskies starting right guard going into his redshirt freshman season and started all 14 of the Huskies' games. Kirkland started the first 11 games of his redshirt sophomore season before sustaining an injury. He moved from right guard to left tackle going into the 2020 season and was named first team All-

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. Kirkland considered entering the

2021 NFL Draft The 2021 NFL Draft was the 86th National Football League Draft, the annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2021 NFL season. The draft was held in Cleveland from April 29 to May 1, 2021 ...

, but opted to return to Washington for a fifth season. He entered his fifth season as one of the top offensive tackle prospects for the 2022 NFL Draft. Kirkland repeated as a first team All-Pac-12 selection after starting ten games with two games missed to an ankle injury in 2021 and declared for the

2022 NFL Draft The 2022 NFL Draft was the 87th edition of the National Football League's annual draft and was held from April 28–30, 2022, at the Caesars Forum on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The first round was held on Thursday, April 28, and w ...

at the end of the season. He opted out of the draft after it was discovered that his ankle injury was more severe than previously thought.

Professional career

Kirkland was signed by the

as an undrafted free agent on May 12, 2023.

References

External links

Washington Huskies bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirkland, Jaxson 1998 births Living people Players of American football from Oregon Jesuit High School (Beaverton, Oregon) alumni American football offensive tackles Washington Huskies football players Cincinnati Bengals players