EAGAN, Minn. – The Vikings have added a wide receiver to the roster.
Minnesota signed Dontavian "Lucky" Jackson to its 90-man roster, the team announced Tuesday.
Jackson most recently played for the XFL's D.C. Defenders, for which he nabbed 36 catches for 573 yards and five touchdowns. He was named to the All-XFL team following the season.
Prior to that, he spent the 2021 campaign with The Spring League's Blues and the back half of the 2022 season with the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Elks.
Here are five things to know about the Vikings newest wideout:
1. Western Kentucky standout
Jackson played for Western Kentucky, where he redshirted his 2015 freshman season before playing four seasons for the Hilltoppers.
In 2019 as a senior, he led the team with 94 catches for 1,133 yards and four touchdowns. Jackson's 94 receptions ranked eighth in FBS that season and are second all-time in WKU program history.
Jackson broke the Hilltoppers single-game record, which had stood for 50 years, with 16 catches at Marshall; he then topped his own mark with 17 catches in the First Responder Bowl against Western Michigan.
2. Impressed early on
Jackson attended Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky, where as a senior he helped the team to a 9-4 finish. He received Courier-Journal All-State First-Team honors, as well as The Associated Press All-State Second-Team honors; he also was named the District 8 Player of the Year and participated in the Best of the Bluegrass All-Star game.
Jackson racked up 49 catches for 1,018 yards and 14 touchdowns that season, and he was named the No. 20 prospect in Kentucky by 247Sports.com.
3. Patient and persistent
After going undrafted by the NFL in 2020, Jackson has weathered the ups and downs of bouncing between leagues and having stints without a team at all. But he's never given up.
"It was very difficult," Jackson told Caroline Makauskas of the Lexington Herald Leader earlier this month. "It was a long year and a half just not playing or not hearing anything like that. So honestly, I give all the credit to God just because there was times where I had to truly lean on my faith and really just believe it, even though I didn't see it at the time.
"I just trusted the process, and I continued to put the work in, and here I am now reaping the benefits of that," he added.
4. Ochocinco's on board
Jackson has received quite the vote of confidence from none other than Chad Johnson.
The three-time All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowler tweeted earlier about Jackson's impact on the D.C. team and shouted him out again in April.
Jackson called Johnson, along with LeBron James and his Aunt Missy Jackson, role models he's looked up to for a long time.
"Just being able to be acknowledged by someone who's a legend at the position that I play is always something that you dream of as a kid," Jackson said.
5. Dog dad
Jackson is the owner of a mammoth-sized mastiff, Otis.
