Jonah Jackson (born February 5, 1997) 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 guard 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

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

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 ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

and

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

Early life and high school

Jackson grew up in

Media, Pennsylvania Media is a borough in and the county seat of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It is located about west of Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation with 1.6 million residents as 2020. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolita ...

. He started his football career at an early age playing for the Rose Tree Colts. He continued playing football into high school, attending

Penncrest High School Penncrest High School is a public four-year comprehensive high school in Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. It is a part of the Rose Tree Media School District. The district, and therefore ...

. He was named first-team All- Central Athletic League and first-team All- Delaware County as a senior.

College career

Jackson spent the first four seasons of his collegiate career at

. He redshirted his true freshman season and played in all 12 of the Scarlet Knights games the next season, mostly on the field goal protection unit. Jackson played center as a redshirt sophomore, playing in six games and starting five contests before suffering a season ending injury. As a redshirt junior, Jackson started 11 games at right guard though he missed one game due to injury and was named honorable mention All-

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

. Following the season, he announced that he would be leaving Rutgers as a graduate transfer, eventually choosing to attend

after visiting

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. Jackson played his final season for the Ohio State Buckeyes, starting all of the Buckeyes games at left guard and garnering first-team All-Big Ten honors.

Professional career

Jackson was selected No. 75 overall by the

in 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 ...

. On June 24, 2020, the Lions signed Jackson to a four-year contract. Jackson was named the Lions starting right guard going into his rookie season. Jackson made his NFL debut on September 13, 2020 in the season opener against the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

, starting at right guard and playing 90% of the Lions offensive snaps. Jackson has started 32 of a possible 33 games through his first 2 seasons in the league. He missed the

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

week 15 matchup against the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

due to a back injury. Jackson was selected to play in the

2022 Pro Bowl The 2022 Pro Bowl was the National Football League all-star game for the 2021 NFL season. It was played at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, on February 6, 2022. ESPN, ABC and Disney XD had the national television rights. Voting for the gam ...

as an injury replacement.

References

External links

Rutgers Scarlet Knights bio

Ohio State Buckeyes bio

Detroit Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Jonah 1997 births Living people American football offensive guards Ohio State Buckeyes football players People from Media, Pennsylvania Players of American football from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Rutgers Scarlet Knights football players Detroit Lions players