Minnesota Vikings will cover large portion of funeral expenses for Khyree Jackson

Minnesota Vikings rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson tragically passed away in a car accident earlier this month. His team is taking steps to honor his passing and helping his family in the aftermath.

Head coach Kevin O'Connell used his season-opening news conference on Monday to discuss plans to honor the gregarious 24-year-old who never got to play in a game and how the Vikings have been grieving Jackson since he and two friends — Isaiah Hazel and A.J. Lytton — were killed in a car crash on July 6 in their home state of Maryland.

The funeral for Jackson and Hazel will be held on Friday. The Vikings said they have donated more than $20,000 toward the expenses, and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and O'Connell will attend the service along with defensive coordinator Brian Flores, special teams coordinator Matt Daniels and defensive backs coach Daronte Jones.

The team will also fly Jackson's family to Minnesota in the coming weeks for a private commemoration with Vikings players and coaches.

"Between his joy, the way he attacked life and also just that hard-working spirit," general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said, "we were so excited to add him to this building, to this culture. It’s a tragedy that he’s not here."

Players will honor Jackson with a decal on all of their helmets this season, and coaches will wear pins that have the initials ‘KJ' on them. His number, 31, will not be worn by anyone this upcoming season.

The fourth-round pick out of Oregon was supposed to report to training camp this week with the rest of his draft class.

There were 38 players who reported to team headquarters on Sunday — mostly rookies, quarterbacks and players rehabilitating injuries — before the balance of the squad arrives on Tuesday. O'Connell normally waits until everyone is present to deliver his season-opening address, but this year he made extra time to speak with the first group to reiterate the availability of mental health resources and explain to the players who were closest to Jackson how the team planned to pay tribute.

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"Khyree was not a part of our team long, but the way our culture is ... it does not take long for guys to build strong bonds and relationships," O'Connell said. "Just through my dialogue throughout the summer with some of our veteran leadership and how they were communicating their feelings and things, it was pretty remarkable to hear the kind of impact that he had in such a short amount of time."

Perhaps the biggest impact Jackson will leave the Vikings is a reminder of the fragility of life and, for the players, the forever tenuous nature of their careers.

"I think it is a wakeup call in a lot of ways that we are not guaranteed another day on this earth at any point in time," O'Connell said. "And there’s not one player in that locker room that probably didn’t think about that at some point in time in their grieving process, just how unfair to Khyree and his family that this was, and ‘What would that have been like?’ or ‘Could that have been me?’ type of questions.'

Many of Jackson's Vikings teammates have taken to social media to honor him, including Vikings rookie Dallas Turner, who posted a picture of Jackson's locker name plate above his own.

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Jackson played football at Fort Scott Community College before transferring to the University of Alabama for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. In 2023, the CB transferred to the University of Oregon to play his final year of college football. He was selected No. 108 overall in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft and was getting ready for his rookie season with the Minnesota Vikings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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