Bengals roster breakdown is back! During the 99 days leading up to Cincinnati's regular season opener against the Cleveland Browns, the player with the matching jersey number as days remaining will become the day's highlighted player.
93 days remain until the Bengals' first game of the 2025 season, so No. 93 McKinnley Jackson gets the spotlight today.
McKinnley Jackson
- Age: 23
- Year: 2nd
- Position: Defensive tackle
- College: Texas A&M
- Previous Teams: None
- Jersey Number: 93
Jackson enters his second season with the Bengals after being drafted 97th overall in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. He played in 13 games (one start) during his rookie season in Cincinnati, racking up 15 tackles, two tackles for loss, and one sack.
The start of Jackson's career wasn't ideal as he suffered a knee sprain early in training camp and wound up missing all of the preseason and the first four games of the regular season.
Once he was cleared to play in October, the Bengals gave Jackson at least 20 snaps in eight of the 13 games he appeared in and he finished the season strong. Pro Football Focus graded him out at 81,7 overall in the last four weeks of the season, trailing just T'Vondre Sweat of the Tennessee Titans out of all rookie defensive tackles with at least 75 snaps played in those four weeks.
Contract Details
Jackson is in the second year of his four-year, $5,596,312 rookie contract. He will earn a base salary of $1,049,378 for the 2025 season, which also represents his total cash earnings for the year.
When adding on his signing bonus proration of $222,511, Jackson's cap hit for the season will be $1,271,889.
Roster Outlook
The two-deep depth chart at defensive tackle seems fairly simple right now. B.J. Hill starts over Kris Jenkins Jr. at 3-technique, and T.J. Slaton Jr. starts over Jackson at nose tackle. Cincinnati clearly liked enough of how Jenkins and Jackson fared down the stretch to keep them in important rotational roles along the defensive line. Jackson specifically flashed more backfield presence than his Day 2 draftee, and with the Bengals drafting him in the third-round despite the consensus ranking him a bit lower, they're firmly standing by their decision to invest in his future.
Much like Myles Murphy, who also missed the first quarter of the year with a knee injury, Jackson's 2024 campaign likely would've went better if he was fully healthy for all of it. Cincinnati is hoping that will be the case this time around, and the year two leap coinciding with it will give them a quality backup for Slaton in the middle of the defensive line.
Expect Jackson to be a regular active member of the front four who gives Slaton breathers on base downs.
Projected role: Rotational defensive tackle
Previous Player Profiles
- No. 99: Myles Murphy
- No. 98: T.J. Slaton Jr.
- No. 97: Shemar Stewart
- No. 96: Cam Sample
- No. 95: Howard Cross III
- No. 94: Eric Gregory
