It seems fitting – sadly so – that on Friday as the Browns began their annual rookie mini camp, we learned of the death of Michael Jackson.

 

Jackson, a wide receiver who played for the original Browns franchise’s last five seasons in Cleveland, 1991-95, and then for three more years for the transplanted Baltimore Ravens, was killed early Friday morning in a motorcycle accident in Tangipahoa, La. He had turned 48 exactly a month earlier.

 

It was at the Browns rookie mini camp in 1991 that it began to become apparent that the club had stumbled upon a nugget in Jackson, a tall, skinny kid from Southern Mississippi who was picked in the sixth round, at No. 141 overall, of that year’s NFL Draft.

 

Players selected halfway through the draft – there were 12 rounds then – aren’t counted on to do much, if anything. Teams are taking flyers on prospects at that point, hoping to get lucky.

 

And the Browns got lucky with the 6-foot-4, 195-pound Jackson.

 

The Browns were starting a rebuilding project under first-year head coach Bill Belichick and as such were looking for young players to replenish a roster that had gotten all at once after a great run of success through the last half of the 1980s. Jackson, who was raw but had size and talent, was perfect for that movement.

 

He didn’t do much as a rookie, catching just 17 passes for two touchdowns, but he began to blossom in 1992 by tying Eric Metcalf for the team lead with 47 receptions. Jackson topped the Browns all by himself with 755 receiving yards, seven touchdown catches and a 16.1 yards-per-reception average.

 

He had 41 receptions for seven scores in 1993, just 21 catches for two TDs in 1994 while missing seven games with a hamstring injury, and 41 receptions for a team-leading 714 yards, nine TDs and 16.2 average in 1995.

 

Jackson finished the Cleveland portion of his career with 170 catches for 2,797 yards (16.5) and 28 TDs. Overall in the NFL including the three seasons with the Ravens, he had 353 receptions for 5,393 yards (15.3) and 46 scores.

 

Not bad – not bad at all — for a sixth-round draft choice.

 

Those at the bottom end of the food chain – the low-round picks, free agents and tryout players — at this weekend’s Browns rookie mini camp can only hope to mimic what Michael Jackson did 26 years ago.