Jeff Jaeger
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| Position: | Placekicker | ||||||||||
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| Born: | November 26, 1964 Tacoma, Washington | ||||||||||
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| College: | Washington | ||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1987 / round: 3 / pick: 82 | ||||||||||
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Jeff Todd Jaeger (born November 26, 1964) is a former American college and professional football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. Jaeger played college football for the University of Washington, and received All-American honors. In the NFL, he played for the Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders and Chicago Bears.
Early years
Jaeger was born in Tacoma, Washington. He was a standout kicker for Kent-Meridian High School in Kent, Washington. Jaeger was not offered scholarships out of high school and chose to walk on the football team at the University of Washington.
College career
At Washington, Jaeger took over for outgoing All-American placekicker Chuck Nelson in 1983 and earned Honorable Mention in the AP's All-America team as a freshman. Jaeger would repeat as an AP honorable mention All-America selection in his sophomore season. Following Jaeger's junior year he was selected as a 2nd Team All-American by Football News. Following his senior season, in which the Huskies went 8-3-1, Jaeger was a consensus All-American, selected as a 1st Team All-American by both the AP and UPI.
Jaeger is still the all-time Washington Husky scoring leader with 358 points and holds the NCAA record with 80 career field goals (Jaeger finished with 21 more field goals than the second leading kicker in Husky history). In his senior season, Jaeger converted 17 of 21 field goal attempts as well as 42 of 43 extra point tries. Perhaps most impressively Jaeger was 6 of 7 on field goal attempts of 40 yards or more.
Pro career
The Cleveland Browns selected Jaeger in the third round (eighty-second pick overall) of the 1987 NFL Draft, and he played for the Browns for a single season in 1987. In his rookie season, Jaeger broke all of the Browns rookie scoring records with 75 points despite playing in only ten games.
He was voted to his first Pro Bowl in 1991. He tied the Raiders franchise record for longest field goal with a 54-yarder in 1992. In 1993, he led the NFL in scoring and set a new Raider record with 132 points. That same year he also led the NFL in complete field goals and tied the all-time NFL mark for field goal attempts. During a game against the Denver Broncos, Jaeger kicked a 53-yard field goal to win the game. His kick was seemingly low and yet managed to cross the uprights. Jaeger led the Raiders in scoring during five consecutive seasons and consistently ranked in the top ten in the league in scoring.
Jaeger eventually spent his last years with the Chicago Bears. In 1999, Jaeger injured his hip, and was released, but was then resigned two days later.[1]