Fred Jackson: Bills GM Doug Whaley was never honest with me
In an interview with The Buffalo News on Tuesday, recently-released running back Fred Jackson said that Bills general manager Doug Whaley was never honest with him about where he stood on the team throughout his eight seasons in Buffalo.
“Doug Whaley was behind [releasing me], to my knowledge. He wasn’t honest with me the entire time that I’ve known him,” Jackson said. “I have the utmost respect for the organization. There’s only one person in that organization that I haven’t gotten honesty from, and that was him.”
Jackson, a Bills team captain who led the team in rushing last season at 33 years old, was released by Buffalo on Monday.
“I was definitely blindsided,” Jackson said. “I was not given that indication. I was under the impression that I had done enough to show I can still contribute to the team. To come in on the first cut with 10 days left, it definitely caught me off guard.”
• BANKS: Ranking new starting QBs and their potential for success
In a statement Monday, Whaley called the choice to release Jackson a “difficult decision,” and later told reporters that there were a lot of factors that went into the decision that needed to be kept “in-house for competitive reasons.”
Tim Graham of The Buffalo News reported that Whaley “went rogue” in making the decision to cut Jackson. By failing to consult team owners before releasing Jackson, Whaley disrupted an ad campaign featuring Jackson run by M&T Bank, one of the Bills' biggest sponsors, that was set to launch Wednesday.
Jackson had been out three weeks with a hamstring injury but returned to the field for Saturday’s preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The NFL veteran visited with the Seahawks on Tuesday and took a physical with the team during his time in Seattle.
- Kayla Lombardo
