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[On tonight's episode of Unsolved Mysteries, we journey back to April 2006, when a 21-year old wide receiver out of Florida, a school notorious for its draft busts at the position, joined the 3-time Super Bowl Champions...]
Many of you may not have heard of this fellow. To refresh your memory, he was a second round pick of the New England Patriots in 2006, a pick they acquired via trade. Believe it or not, he was chosen a handful of picks ahead of the Packers' Greg Jennings, yet Jackson was considered by many to be a steal where he was drafted. Before the draft, Jackson visited the Patriots, who were impressed enough to eventually draft him.
At the time, he was expected to go in the 15-20 pick range in the first round, ahead of where the Pats were drafting, 21. By the evening of Draft Day 1, we were loving this draft.
Still, a few days after John Mark Karr entered American lexicon, fans began to get concerned as Jackson was out of training camp with a hamstring injury, and also spent most of August on the Active/PUP list.
By the beginning of the 2006 season, Jackson was reportedly acting a fool at the Patriots' annual kickoff gala in the now-famous Tom Casale/PatsPsychos.com debacle (for the record, Casale and PatsFans have since reconciled their differences, but not all the facts have come out, and likely will never).
As Jackson opened the season with speculation he wasn't committing a full effort to the team, his behavior seemed to be overblown, yet with Doug Gabriel on the way out, and Jabar Gaffney yet to emerge, the Pats were engaged with trade talks with the Raiders for Randy Moss, and more dirt emerged on Jackson. Jackson finally came off the injury report, but his involvement in the offense was still limited. As the games flew by, there were more posts prognosticating that this will be the week Chad Jackson breaks out than this poster feels like searching for and linking.
In fact, after the Pats' dismal ending to the 2006 season in Indy, it slowly came to light that he had suffered a torn achilles in that loss. Days after, PatsFans was was undecided on whether to trade (one usually great poster said he'd be disgusted with such a decision) for a wide receiver who, less than a year later, would break an NFL record wearing Patriot blue. The Pats did end up trading for Moss, and that created a log jam at the position.
Eventually, Jackson was back on the Active/PUP list. This round of missed training camp practices, however, led to his being placed on the Reserve/PUP, knocking him out for a good chunk of the season. Meanwhile, another Patriots wide receiver pulled up lame with a hamstring injury of his own, leading one one much-maligned Boston sports personality to say Moss was "dogging it", and rumors to surface that Moss wouldn't make the opening roster. But, Moss wasn't the only one rumored to be cut. Our friend Chad was in danger of that happening, too.
Jackson was eventually activated, but only saw spot special teams duty as a kick returner in the games that he was active for.
Now, it is April 2008. Jackson had been with the team for almost two years...and has done nothing.
In next week's episode, we will interview ChadJacksonFan, the PatsFans member well known for supporting the Hoover High alum who has practiced three times in two training camps with the team.
Until then, remember to ask yourself:
Just who is "Chad Jackson?"
Many of you may not have heard of this fellow. To refresh your memory, he was a second round pick of the New England Patriots in 2006, a pick they acquired via trade. Believe it or not, he was chosen a handful of picks ahead of the Packers' Greg Jennings, yet Jackson was considered by many to be a steal where he was drafted. Before the draft, Jackson visited the Patriots, who were impressed enough to eventually draft him.
At the time, he was expected to go in the 15-20 pick range in the first round, ahead of where the Pats were drafting, 21. By the evening of Draft Day 1, we were loving this draft.
Still, a few days after John Mark Karr entered American lexicon, fans began to get concerned as Jackson was out of training camp with a hamstring injury, and also spent most of August on the Active/PUP list.
By the beginning of the 2006 season, Jackson was reportedly acting a fool at the Patriots' annual kickoff gala in the now-famous Tom Casale/PatsPsychos.com debacle (for the record, Casale and PatsFans have since reconciled their differences, but not all the facts have come out, and likely will never).
As Jackson opened the season with speculation he wasn't committing a full effort to the team, his behavior seemed to be overblown, yet with Doug Gabriel on the way out, and Jabar Gaffney yet to emerge, the Pats were engaged with trade talks with the Raiders for Randy Moss, and more dirt emerged on Jackson. Jackson finally came off the injury report, but his involvement in the offense was still limited. As the games flew by, there were more posts prognosticating that this will be the week Chad Jackson breaks out than this poster feels like searching for and linking.
In fact, after the Pats' dismal ending to the 2006 season in Indy, it slowly came to light that he had suffered a torn achilles in that loss. Days after, PatsFans was was undecided on whether to trade (one usually great poster said he'd be disgusted with such a decision) for a wide receiver who, less than a year later, would break an NFL record wearing Patriot blue. The Pats did end up trading for Moss, and that created a log jam at the position.
Eventually, Jackson was back on the Active/PUP list. This round of missed training camp practices, however, led to his being placed on the Reserve/PUP, knocking him out for a good chunk of the season. Meanwhile, another Patriots wide receiver pulled up lame with a hamstring injury of his own, leading one one much-maligned Boston sports personality to say Moss was "dogging it", and rumors to surface that Moss wouldn't make the opening roster. But, Moss wasn't the only one rumored to be cut. Our friend Chad was in danger of that happening, too.
Jackson was eventually activated, but only saw spot special teams duty as a kick returner in the games that he was active for.
Now, it is April 2008. Jackson had been with the team for almost two years...and has done nothing.
In next week's episode, we will interview ChadJacksonFan, the PatsFans member well known for supporting the Hoover High alum who has practiced three times in two training camps with the team.
Until then, remember to ask yourself:
Just who is "Chad Jackson?"
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