Roy Jebaz "Jay" Higgins IV (born February 14, 2002) 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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

for the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

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

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Iowa Hawkeyes The Iowa Hawkeyes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. The Hawkeyes have varsity teams in 20 sports, 7 for men and 13 for women; The teams participate in Division I of the Nati ...

Early life

Higgins was born on February 14, 2002, and attended

Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School is a Jesuit college-preparatory school on the northwest side of Indianapolis. Founded in 1962, the school is named in honor of Jean de Brébeuf, a French saint from the 17th century. Brebeuf Jesuit is part of th ...

. Higgins committed to play

for the

College career

As a freshman in 2020 Higgins notched just two tackles. In 2021, he totaled five tackles and a fumble recovery. In week 9 of the 2022 season, Higgins recorded a career-high 11 tackles versus Northwestern. He finished the season with 39 tackles with one and half going for a loss, and half a sack. Higgins tallied 16 tackles in the 2023 season opener against Utah State. In week 4, he notched a career-high 18 tackles versus

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

. Higgins was a semifinalist for the 2023

Butkus Award The Butkus Award, instituted in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, is given annually to the top linebackers at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of football. The award, named in honor of College Football Hall of Fame ...

and a first-team all-

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

selection by both the coaches and the media. In 2024, Higgins was again named first team all-Big Ten and won the Big Ten Linebacker of the Year.

College statistics

Professional career

Higgins signed with the

as an undrafted free agent on May 4, 2025.

References

External links

Iowa Hawkeyes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Jay 2002 births Living people Players of American football from Indianapolis American football linebackers All-American college football players Iowa Hawkeyes football players Baltimore Ravens players