Inside The Huskies

Husky Roster Review: Without More Weight, Jackett In For Long Wait to Play

At 6-foot-7, he's more than tall enough to line up at tackle, but still 35 pounds or more too light.
Dan Raley|
Elishah Jackett (76) chats up Drew Azzopardi during a break in spring ball.
Elishah Jackett (76) chats up Drew Azzopardi during a break in spring ball. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Two hundred and seventy-five pounds might sound like a lot of weight to a normal human being, but for a University of Washington offensive lineman such as Elishah Jackett, it represents several Dick Deluxe burgers, orders of fries and chocolate milkshakes shy of game time.

Entering his third season in Montlake, the 6-foot-7 Jackett [pronounced Ja-Kett] has barely moved the needle on the Husky weight-room scale -- with him putting on just 16 pounds or so over 25 months since arriving on campus as a well-regarded 4-star prospect from Orange, California.

In contrast, redshirt freshman offensive guard Paki Finau is nearly 50 pounds bigger since he enrolled at the UW 18 months ago.

Finau stands a good chance to become a starter at left guard this season.

Jackett?

He's probably not going see game action at Husky Stadium until he finds a way to bulk up considerably more for the rigors of Big Ten football.

To try and mix it up with conference opponents with his wispy frame would be a fruitless endeavor.

Elishah Jackett makes a move during UW spring ball.
Elishah Jackett makes a move during UW spring ball. | Skylar Lin Visuals

This is one in a series of articles -- going from 0 to 99 on the Husky roster -- examining what each scholarship player and leading walk-on did this past spring and what to expect from them going forward.

To be fair, Jackett missed a good portion of the 2024 football season with a knee injury suffered in fall camp that required a surgical procedure before he could return to practice.

Elishah Jackett (76) is struggling to put enough weight to move up the depth chart.
Elishah Jackett (76) is struggling to put enough weight to move up the depth chart. | Skylar Lin Visuals

As far as that nagging weight situation, coach Jedd Fisch had a quaint way of addressing it during the 2024 season.

"He's certainly working on continuing to grow into his height," the Husky leader said.

With all players made available for media interviews during the CFP playoffs, Jackett was quizzed back then about his weight leading up the national championship game against Michigan 19 months ago in Houston.

"I'm just trying to get bigger," he said of his continuous struggle to add heft.

Jackett probably still is about 30 pounds shy of what his recommended weight might be and consequently he appears to be a long way from getting pointed to the huddle on game day.

ELISHAH JACKETT FILE

What he's done: Consider that freshman linemen John Mills, Champ Taulealea and Jack Shaffer each reported close to 100 pounds heavier than Jackett did and those three primarily are guards while the third-year sophomore operates at tackle. Jackett spent nearly all of spring ball as a third-team tackle. He hasn't appeared in any UW games yet.

Starter or not: Jackett looks athletic enough for a lineman, but he isn't going to play for the Huskies on Saturdays until he fills out more. It's as simple as that. As slender as he is, the earliest we might see him on game day is probably 2026.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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