UFL Showcase Player Highlight WR Arthur Jackson III

If this name rings a bell, it’s because he isn’t a stranger to spending time on a USFL roster. He was brought in by the Mike Riley-led New Jersey Generals in 2022 and returned in 2023 seeing snaps in one game. The IFL veteran knows how important staying relevant and in game shape can be so he returned to a league he has dominated in the past.

Nothing he had done in the past quite compares to his success so far in 2024. His connection with former NFL Draft Pick Nate Davis has the San Diego Strikeforce on the doorstep of competing for an IFL Championship. This is quite the leap for a team that had never won a playoff game before this season. The upcoming Western Conference Championship game can be found for free on YouTube.

Table of Contents

1 College Career

College Career

Coming out of high school Jackson was not very highly recruited even though he put up eye-popping numbers as a senior which included 66 receptions for 1,159 yards and 21 touchdowns. On the other side of the field was Tayvian Cunningham another future spring football wideout who was drafted by the XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons for 2023. There was also a quarterback whose name you might recognize residing as the QB2, Carson Strong. Unfortunately, that team fell just short of winning a championship in his final year of high school.

Jackson wound up at American River College, if you have never heard of the school you are not alone. Despite its low profile overall it has helped launch several professional football careers by serving as a springboard to D1 offers.

This included two future NFL first-round picks in quarterback Tony Eason selected by the Patriots and Gerald Willhite selected by the Broncos. Just under 20 years later Denver again selected a former American River student and running back, Devontae Booker in the 4th round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Another future pro was undrafted free agent Jarrett Bush a cornerback who found a home with the Green Bay Packers where he played 7 seasons before finishing his career in the CFL with Calgary.

Jackson would add his name to the list, but take the hard way to get there. It took a season for Jackson to realize he was jeopardizing his football career, something he had been working for since he was 6 years old by not putting forth more effort when it came to his grades. He didn’t immediately make an impact on the field in the manner you might expect after seeing his high school stats. He finished having played in 7 games collecting 9 receptions for 186 yards and 3 touchdowns.

He buckled down as a sophomore knowing he had Division I offers waiting if he got his grades up…not only did he get them where they needed to be, but this would never be an issue for Jackson again as he rededicated himself to his education knowing football is not forever. He also would end up leading his team in receptions, yards, and touchdowns with 45 catches for 686 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also showed he could return kicks and punts. He would take 12 kicks for 365 yards and 1 touchdown, averaging over 30 yards per return. He was the primary punt returner as well with 17 attempts for 103 yards.

Eastern Michigan Finds a Diamond in the Rough

The communications major would commit to Eastern Michigan, one of the schools that had shown interest in him after his freshman season. Jackson immediately became a very valuable player for EMU. Stepping in as a starter from day one he would start 13 games and make the most of it. Catching 46 passes for 592 yards and 5 touchdowns, and returning 4 kicks for 57 yards.

His final year of college would end up a career year. Catching 46 passes again, Jackson managed 140 more yards and 2 more touchdowns on the year ending with 732 yards and 7 touchdowns. This led to him being named Second Team All-MAC.

After college Jackson was not invited to the combine, and instead was left to do his best at his pro-day. While other Michigan schools cancelled their event Jackson was able to still participate in the EMU event. A blessing at the time given the pandemic. He would put up respectable numbers, but leave something to be desired with his 40-yard dash.

At 6’0 196 pounds Jackson managed:

His 10-yard split is elite, but I have to wonder if Jackson was ever trained on the intricacies of running the 40. His first step certainly didn’t amount to the overall result one would expect, and I would venture a guess in reality he would run somewhere in the 4.45-4.50 range given another opportunity, one he will get at the showcases. His personal best came this offseason after dedicating himself to speed training running a 4.43.

He showed above-average strength for his size, a valuable tool to have when your best chance of making an outdoor roster might be your ability to play on several special teams units. This would come into play when blocking, beating press coverage, and/or getting off a block to make a tackle on special teams. With his speed and strength, he could be a great gunner on coverage teams.

Chasing a Professional Career

At the outset of 2020, there were several options for the young man to continue his career. Whether that was the NFL, CFL, XFL, overseas, or the IFL, by the time he finished his pro-day and realized he had not been drafted most of these options had shut down indefinitely. CFL and IFL would both return in 2021, but at that point, the CFL had two years’ worth of draft picks, free agent signees, and former NFL free agents to comb through.

This left players like Jackson with few choices, but Jackson simply went to work. Signing with the Louisville Xtreme. The Xtreme were an expansion team added to the IFL in 2021 after they initially had been mentioned as an NAL team. The Xtreme featured an extremely deep wide receiver room including Todd Athey, Harlan Craig, Desmond Maxwell, Quan Shorts, and Edgar Poe. After just 5 games the team was removed from the IFL.

First Big Break for Jackson III

Originally brought in by the Generals in 2022 he wasn’t even given a chance to attend training camp with the team and instead returned to the IFL. He latched on with the Tucson Sugar Skulls playing with Da’Quan Neal for the first time. The two developed a quick connection that resulted in Jackson finishing second on the team in receptions and touchdowns, as well as third in yards with 41 receptions for 439 yards and 12 touchdowns. He also returned 4 kicks for 13 yards. This was enough for both Jackson and his quarterback Neal to be signed, unfortunately, Neal was let go in favor of a CFL quarterback Dakota Prukop, who started with New Jersey but by season’s end had been released and was back in the CFL.

Jackson would go on to play in and start just 1 game for New Jersey. He was targeted 5 times catching 2 passes for 25 yards. He was not used in the return game. After being let go by the Generals he was signed by the Bay Area Panthers reuniting with Dixie Wooten who was his head coach in Tucson, and the current Bay Area offensive coordinator. He played in 3 games catching 10 passes for 88 yards and 2 touchdowns, and attempted 1 pass helping Bay Area go from worst to first and win a championship.

San Diego Strike Force Give Blueprint on How to Utilize Arthur Jackson III

After 2023 he jumped to San Diego joining a team that featured former NFL Draft Pick Nate Davis, former XFL Draft Pick, and CFL Signee DE Jaquan Artis, former St. Louis Battlehawk DB Kishawn Walker, former Saskatchewan Roughrider DB Rudy Johnson, former Tampa Bay Bandit OL Jalen Booth, and former CFL/XFL DB Tareke Lewis. This team was quietly poised for a championship run and Jackson seemed to recognize that when he signed.

This move has paid off in a big way as the Strike Force utilized Jackson as their top target and he responded with monster numbers. He finished the regular season leading the league in receiving touchdowns with 28, even though he was only tenth in overall receptions with 59, and eleventh with 700 yards. He managed all of this in just 14 games.

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In their first playoff game this season Jackson took his performance to another level. Catching 5 passes for 54 yards and finding the end zone 4 times. He added 1 kick return for 2 yards. With just two games left, assuming they win this weekend, it would be all too fitting if Jackson could win an IFL Championship and then ride off into the sunset of his IFL career by signing on with a UFL or CFL team. His ties to the Generals unfortunately no longer help him at all, but the league is certainly aware of him and his performance in the IFL.

Scouting Report

Jackson has an innate ability for reading the holes in zone coverage, giving his quarterback a clear target. He makes the tough catches look routine, and has been seen on more than one occasion hauling in a pass as he goes careening over a wall in the IFL. His route running is superb and often times is the reason he finds so much success, he simply knows how to get open. He is a master of double moves, and head fakes that create confusion for defensive backs, and when he is thrown the ball, he rarely lets his team down. Reliable is an understatement in his case.

Jackson has the speed and agility to create after the catch, but it’s his vision that sticks out. When he is in the open field he will find a way to make blocks count, and when there is no running room he will create one. The former pop warner running back seems to have held on to some of those running back style traits. I am surprised at the lack of carries whether it be on reverses, or jet sweeps given his open field ability. Now the question is can he back up his on-field performance with the IFL by running a fast enough 40 times to erase his 4.64 from memories in the UFL?

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