Inside The Vikings

Vikings Sign Former Broncos and Colorado State WR Warren Jackson to Add Depth

Jackson is a big-bodied receiver with lackluster athleticism. He'll try to impress the coaching staff in Minnesota.
Will Ragatz|
Vikings Sign Former Broncos and Colorado State WR Warren Jackson to Add Depth
Vikings Sign Former Broncos and Colorado State WR Warren Jackson to Add Depth

The Vikings have signed former Colorado State wide receiver Warren Jackson, who was recently waived by the Denver Broncos.

With Minnesota down to six healthy receivers for its most recent practice on Saturday and having a couple open roster spots, adding another body makes sense. Bisi Johnson is out for the season with a torn ACL, Dede Westbrook is still recovering from his own ACL tear, Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen are banged up, and Myron Mitchell is on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.

Jackson played with Johnson for a couple seasons at Colorado State (2017 and '18), totaling just 670 yards and six touchdowns during that time. With Johnson gone in 2019, Jackson had his breakout season, recording 77 catches, 1,119 yards, and eight touchdowns. He opted out of the 2020 college football season and went undrafted this year before being picked up by the Broncos.

The main thing Jackson has going for him is size. He's huge at 6'6", 219 pounds, and he uses that to be physical off the line of scrimmage and make contested catches. It's particularly useful in the red zone.

The issue with Jackson's game — and this is likely why he didn't even make it through a full training camp with the Broncos — is that he's severely lacking in NFL-caliber athleticism. His pro day numbers include a 4.72-second 40 and a 7.71-second three-cone, which are incredibly poor for a wide receiver. In fact, that three-cone is slower than the one Vikings DT Dalvin Tomlinson recorded at the 2017 combine (7.68 seconds).

That might be OK if his strength and leaping ability were impressive, but he scored poorly on the bench press and vertical jump as well.

These visuals contextualize Jackson's woeful testing numbers in basically everything outside of size.

Jackson has the profile of someone who could benefit from beefing up and becoming a tight end, a la Shane Zylstra.

Still, this is a fine dart throw signing for the Vikings. They don't have anyone with his kind of size; Minnesota's second-tallest receiver is Thielen at 6'2". Jackson will look to impress the coaching staff over the next three weeks and potentially earn a spot on the practice squad.

Interestingly enough, his former team is coming to town this week for a pair of joint practices and a preseason game. I'd imagine Jackson will be fired up to prove them wrong for waiving him.

Jackson will wear the No. 20 jersey formerly occupied by Jeff Gladney, per the Vikings' website.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI, who also covers the Twins, Timberwolves, Gophers, and other Minnesota teams. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.

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