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 wit ...

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, pl ...

for the Houston Texans 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 ma ...

(NFL). He played college football at

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 near ...

(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 ...

Early years

Phillips attended

East Nashville Magnet High School East Nashville Magnet High School (formerly East Literature Magnet School and commonly referred to as just East) is a public magnet high school located in Nashville, Tennessee. Students were once enrolled through a lottery process, but the school ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

. As a senior in 2016, he was selected Tennessee Mr. Football and played in the

U.S. Army All-American Bowl The All-American Bowl is a high school football all-star game, held annually at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Typically played in January, the All-American Bowl is played between all-star teams representing the eastern and western United S ...

. 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 college football at the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

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 Houston Texans by trading Duke Johnson 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 identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

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 Houston Texans 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