Jaxson Kirkland (born July 30, 1998) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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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 of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

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for the

Washington Huskies The Washington Huskies are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) N ...

Early life

Kirkland grew up in Camas, Washington 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. 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, Ohio from April 29 to May ...

, 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 NFL draft, draft and was held from April 28–30, 2022, at the Caesars Forum on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, Paradise next to Las Vegas. The first round ...

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. He was waived on August 29, 2023, and re-signed to the practice squad the following day. Following the end of the 2023 regular season, the Bengals signed him to a reserve/future contract on January 8, 2024. Kirkland made the Bengals initial roster in 2024 as a backup offensive lineman, but suffered a biceps injury in Week 5 and was placed on injured reserve on October 8, 2024.

References

External links

Cincinnati Bengals bio

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