“I knew after the visit, this is where I wanted to be,” Jackson said at his introductory Vikings press conference on Friday. “I understand it's not like college, you can't commit to an organization, but I told my agent, ‘If we can, like, I really want to go to Minnesota.’ But I'm blessed to have it all work out in the way I want it to be. I know I'm in a place where I'm needed and wanted. So I'm just ready to get to work and help win games.”
The Vikings fell in love, too, enough to select Jackson No. 24 overall in the 2025 NFL draft on Thursday.
“We talked about, in our evaluation process, really seeing him early as a player that we were interested in,” Minnesota general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said. “You saw the play at guard. We started watching him last year and early in this year. And then to see the light come on at tackle – we say the word selfless often. And I think selfless is a word we all like to say about ourselves, but selfless in action. You're talking about everything on the line for his personal future and what he did for his team, and it resulted in a national championship run, is something that he should be proud of as a player and something that we're proud to bring to this organization.”
