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Safety Kyshoen Jarrett was a 6th round pick of the Washington Redskins out of Virginia Tech (aka “DBU”) in the 2015 draft.
Jarrett’s NFL career lasted just 16 games. He retired after his rookie season due to suffering severe nerve damage in his shoulder in the season’s final game against the Cowboys. After spending time rehabbing the injury, he re-joined the franchise as an assistant coach for the Redskins in 2019, but wasn’t retained by Ron Rivera when he took over in 2020.
In June 2021, Jarret joined the Virginia Tech Hokies as assistant director of player personnel. In February of ‘22, it was announced that he would be serving as a defensive graduate assistant with the Hokies; however, just a week later, it was reported that he was joining Howard as a defensive backs coach — the role he currently holds.
As a rookie, Jarrett exceeded all reasonable expectations. In November of Jarrett’s rookie season, in a “5 Questions with the Enemy” article, our Alex Rowsey was asked to talk about one player on each side of the ball for Washington whom Saints fans may not have heard of, but who was likely to have a big impact on the game. Defensively, Alex spotlighted the rookie safety.
I’m going to go with our sixth-round rookie DB Kyshoen Jarrett. Jarrett’s an undersized (5’10”, 200 lbs.) S out of VT who has been our top nickel CB for a majority of this season. You read that right. And what’s more… he’s been very impressive.
When a DB is drafted in the sixth round, you’re typically thinking that maybe he’ll make the team and if he ever sees the field, he’ll be contributing on special teams. Jarrett is pretty great on STs, but he’s been needed on defense terribly due to the crazy amount and severity of injuries in our secondary. I mean, we seriously asked a sixth-round rookie S to play CB in the slot and he’s been killing it.
This week, our secondary is getting much healthier, but you can be assured that Jarrett will still have a place on the field. Will it be in the slot? Maybe he’ll move back and play some S? Maybe both? I’m not sure yet, but I know he’ll be out there because he’s been too good to keep off the field.
I remember the excitement surrounding Jarrett’s play in the 2015 playoff season. The ‘underdog’ 6th round pick from a local school looked like he had a bright future with the Redskins.
That bright NFL future came to an abrupt halt with a single collision in Week 18. Here’s how ESPN’s John Keim later described it:
With 6 minutes, 32 seconds left in the first quarter of Washington’s 2015 season finale at Dallas, Jarrett was a tough, rookie safety for the Redskins. The sixth-round pick from Virginia Tech had worked his way into being a part-time starter. His career was promising.
Three seconds later, he was on the ground, his right arm limp, his left leg kicking the ground in pain. His life had just changed.
Jarrett had suddenly become a 22-year-old with nerve damage in his right arm that even four years later has left him without feeling in half his arm.
The injury occurred on a basic run — Dallas’ Darren McFadden took a handoff on second-and-18, running through the right side of the line. Jarrett, aligned on the other hash about 7 yards off the ball, ran over to make the tackle. With the 205-pound Jarrett in position, the 220-pound McFadden lowered his shoulder and drove into the safety’s right shoulder area. Jarrett spun around, hit the ground and started writhing in pain.
“I still see myself filling, getting sealed back on the play and me tracking him and hitting the hole,” Jarrett said. “That’s all I get from there before everything blacks out. I don’t know what I could have done different. I don’t know if I could have gotten a little lower, went for the legs. I don’t know if he could have gave me more shoulder than helmet. Just one of those times.”
[I]t took a while for him to realize how much his life had changed. Four months later, doctors at the Mayo Clinic delivered the news.
Jarrett, who is right-handed, suffered severe damage to the brachial plexus, which impacts the upper extremities. A nerve transfer, from his biceps to his deltoid muscle, wasn’t able to restore full usage of his right arm — he estimates it’s at 60% usage. He said he still has feeling behind the arm, but not on the upper surface. The arm has atrophied and the nerve pain continues.
“It’s a nerve injury that has put limitations [on me] since that day. I’m continuing to strive and fight to regain as much strength as possible just for every-day living.”
Keim quotes Kyshoen Jarrett in that article as saying, “I’m still having days of difficulty accepting the road [of] no longer being able to play. The coaching isn’t difficult; to accept the not playing is.”
“When I look in the mirror, there’s two different people,” Jarrett said. “If I can see the differences, someone else can surely see my differences. At times and very early, self-image begins to become an issue. I went from this 205-pound guy, pretty evenly built — I can tackle some of the strongest men without a problem — down to a guy I feel is barely recognizable physically. At times, it was definitely a big struggle.”
Kyshoen Jarrett’s response to the life changing injury is both an inspiration and a case study in how difficult personal tragedies can be. Kyshoen Jarrett has moved on with his life, and these days, he puts the same kind of energy into college coaching that he did as a rookie defensive back just 9 years ago.
In one Twitter post this week, Jarrett posted an upbeat message: “I had to go from one extreme to the next. Hung up the cleats & put on a headset. It’s all about serving the next generation. Your time is now! Don’t take it for granted, but take advantage.”
But the same day, he posted about that fateful day in Dallas: “Didn’t get to leave the game the way I wanted! & because of it….”
Kyshoen Jarrett is lucky in many ways. He was a successful player all the way through college. He got drafted and played over 600 defensive snaps as an NFL rookie. He was admired and acclaimed for his skill on the field.
But he is also unlucky. His dream came to an abrupt end. He didn’t have months or years of struggle before finally figuring out he wasn’t good enough; nor did he get to have several years of success followed by an inevitable decline that brought him to the end in stages. There was no period of acceptance or adjustment. One second, he was on the field enjoying the final regular season game of his rookie year and looking ahead to a playoff game the following week; the next second, his NFL career was over.
I loved watching Kyshoen Jarrett play football. When I saw him get injured in that Week 18 game, I first thought it was a ‘stinger’. When I later learned that it was a more severe injury, I was hopeful that, with an entire offseason to recover, I would see him playing in burgundy & gold for many years to come. When he was forced to retire, I felt sad for him. When Jay Gruden hired him as a defensive quality control assistant, I was excited about his return to Washington. When Ron Rivera let him go, I felt some resentment that Jarrett didn’t get better treatment from the organization. I’d love to see the Josh Harris Washington franchise re-establish ties with No. 30.
I’ve paid keen attention as he has continued his post-playing career in the college ranks, and I figure the young men who have him as a coach should count themselves lucky. Jarrett is a winner in every way that matters, and I hope that his personal regrets with the way his career ended will become easier to bear as his life continues to take shape beyond his NFL playing days.