Alabama Receives Commitment from Former Jacksonville State Tight End

Jaxon Shuttlesworth will have three years of eligibility remaining.

Jaxon Shuttlesworth (85). | X/@JaxStateFB

An in-state tight end transfer is heading to Alabama. Jacksonville State redshirt freshman Jaxon Shuttlesworth has committed to Alabama, as announced on Instagram Saturday in a post on which Shuttlesworth is a collaborator. The Chelsea High School product has three years of college eligibility on his ledger.

The transfer portal opened on Jan. 2, with Shuttlesworth officially sharing his intent to enter on Jan. 3 after two years with the Gamecocks' program. The portal will close on Jan. 16, and no spring window is set to follow after it was removed in September.

"Thank you to Jax State for believing in me and giving me an opportunity to play the game I love. Also, a big thanks to all my teammates for making my first two years of football so special," Shuttlesworth said. "With that being said, I am entering the transfer portal with three years of eligibility left."

He has since updated his bio on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) to reflect his new destination. Shuttlesworth is the second tight end to join the Crimson Tide by way of a transfer; Alabama signed former Oklahoma State tight end Josh Ford in December.

The Crimson Tide's starting tight end, Josh Cuevas, no longer has any eligibility after two seasons with Alabama. He came to Tuscaloosa with head coach Kalen DeBoer. Also out of eligibility at the tight end position is Brody Dalton, who joined the program last offseason from Troy, along with Peter Knudson and Peyton Fox. Cuevas dealt with a lower-body injury injury near the end of the 2025-26 season, missing contests against Eastern Illinois, Auburn and Georgia before returning for the College Football Playoff.

Alabama has two rising sophomores in its tight end room: Kaleb Edwards and Marshall Pritchett. In 2025, the team also had Cuevas, Fox, Weber State transfer Knudson, West Virginia transfer Jack Sammarco, Jay Lindsey and Danny Lewis Jr. in the room. Lindsey was the Crimson Tide's only healthy scholarship tight end in spring ball last offseason.

The position has not seen any portal departures from the Alabama team as of this writing. Shuttlesworth is the ninth incoming player in the Crimson Tide's transfer class this offseason. Former Mercer defensive back Carmelo O'Neal announced his commitment to Alabama on Saturday morning, and Shuttlesworth's addition brings the total number of transfer commitments to three on defense, two on special teams and four on offense.