Last Thursday, Dallas Turner stopped suddenly as he walked onto the Minnesota Vikings’ practice field, turning to kneel at one of the memorials the team set up for Khyree Jackson. Turner spent two seasons as Jackson’s teammate at Alabama, and the Vikings reunited them when they traded up to take Turner with pick 17 and drafted Jackson in the fourth round.
On July 6, Jackson died in a three-car crash that also killed two of his high school teammates. Turner says he still feels Jackson’s presence despite his passing. “I talk to him all the time,” he told reporters on July 25, “and get the chills every time I talk to him. So I know he’s watching over me.”
Turner was part of the Vikings contingent that attended Jackson’s joint funeral with former high school teammate Isaiah Hazel on July 26. Kevin O’Connell, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, defensive coordinator Brian Flores, and special teams coordinator Matt Daniels also attended the service. Jackson’s family asked O’Connell to speak at the funeral, and he spoke of Jackson’s selflessness as a teammate and how his teammates were drawn to his personality.
“I personally can tell you I tried to talk him into getting his shoulder fixed, knowing how important he was to the future of our organization,” O’Connell said before pausing for a moment to compose his emotions. “It was a decision that, quite honestly, most players in our league don’t think twice about. They should get it fixed. They should think about themselves and the betterment of their career and how they can be the best versions of themself.
“I wouldn’t have held it against him for one bit if he decided it was time to fix that shoulder, but not Khyree. He looked at me and said, ‘Nope, I can play. I have to be out there with my brothers. I would rather do what I have to do and fight through it to be there and try to help my team win.'”
In closing, O’Connell said,“He made an impact. Thank you, Khyree, for being everything that we hoped for when we drafted you.… There was just something about you that drew us closer and closer.… We promise that you will be with us every step of the way.”
O’Connell has repeatedly said the Vikings had big plans for Jackson, 24, an older draft pick who may have been able to make an immediate on-field impact. Flores watched every snap of Jackson’s from his final season at Oregon and advocated for him on draft night.
“It was a short time with Khyree,” said Flores, “but for me and really [defensive backs coach] Daronte [Jones] and the defensive staff, we spent quite a bit of time with Khyree during the draft process, starting at the Senior Bowl, meeting him there, spending time with him there, then Zooms, 30-visit, and then obviously when we got him here, we were really excited about him.
“I was really excited about coaching him, getting him here, and I think he had a bright, bright future.”
Turner says that he spent a lot of time around Jackson during minicamps and OTAs once the Vikings reunited them.
“That was really a dude that I saw every single day,” Turner said, “and really [I’ve seen] him grow from Alabama to when he went to Oregon. He went through his trials and tribulations over there. We ended up at the same place once again. So I kind of felt like that meant something, and that was my dude every single day after practice [this spring]. [Jackson] was around with me at the hotel, hanging out with each other in the hotel every day and just talking crap and stuff like that with each other, just having fun.
“That was a dude that really helped me grow as a person. He helped me realize who I was, and he helped me build my confidence off the field and on the field in a way. But he [was] definitely a very impactful person.”
Before training camp started, Adofo-Mensah said the Vikings plan to have a celebration of life for Jackson in Minnesota. Adofo-Mensah added that ownership had supported creating tributes for Jackson and getting players the mental health help they need throughout the season.
“I know I’ve lost a father early, a close friend in college at a young age,” Adofo-Mensah said. “How I honored them and how I think we’ll all honor Khyree is by the memories we have of him, what we travel every day, and we think and laugh and smile about what he might have said or what he might have did, how we live our lives, how we smile, how we live with joy, how we work hard, how we approach our craft. That’s how we’ll honor him on a day-to-day basis.”
Flores said that coaches throughout the league have reached out to support him, but nobody has answers for how to handle the death of a 24-year-old player. “The grieving part of that, that’s still ongoing,” said Flores. “Speaking for myself, I have my moments where I get down. When you think about all that he had been through to get to this point, that’s a lot of what I loved about the player.”
O’Connell said it was an honor to speak at Jackson’s funeral. “We represented everyone and the Minnesota Vikings the way that we like to, where we think the standards of how we treat our players [and] their families, there’s no greater moment than that to go do that.”
Jackson’s death leaves a void the Vikings cannot fill this season. Still, they will honor him with their words and deeds. They have created tributes on the practice fields at TCO Performance Center in Eagan, will offer a service in Minnesota, and plan to invite his family to a game. Turner says he still speaks to him daily, reunited briefly but forever together.
