Cornerback Khyree Jackson was supposed to report for his first NFL training camp on Sunday. Instead, the former Alabama cornerback will be laid to rest on Friday.

A fourth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings, Jackson died in a traffic accident on July 6 in his hometown of Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

“Phone starts ringing at 4 a.m.,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said on Friday during an appearance on KFAN-FM. “It’s basically your biggest nightmare as a head coach. I’ve talked to some of the other coaches since that’s happened, and we all just kind of loathe that moment when your phone rings and it’s going to bad news. You just know it is. And it happened to be the worst kind of news.”

O’Connell will welcome Minnesota’s rookies back to the TCO Performance Center in Eagan, Minnesota, on Sunday. The Vikings’ veteran players come in on Tuesday, and Minnesota will hold its first full-team practice of training camp on Wednesday.

“That was a big thing that (defensive coordinator Brian Flores) talked about when we left from OTAs: Let’s just make it back,” Vikings safety Josh Metellus told KSTP-TV in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Wednesday. “We already got one guy down, so it’s just one of those things, man. We just got to lean on each other, and that’s what the brotherhood’s for.”

The Vikings begin their three-game preseason schedule on Aug. 10 against the Las Vegas Raiders and kick off the regular season on Sept. 8 against the New York Giants.

“I’d literally talked to him just a couple of days before,” Metellus said. “Told him when we go to Chicago I was going to take him shopping and do all these things. To see a guy who was so dedicated, so energetic, to not even get the chance to put on the uniform and play with his brothers, it definitely hurts.

“We got to play for him and do everything moving forward in his name. I know my season’s going to be dedicated to him in every way possible. I’m going to go out there and play for him and his family because I know that’s what he would want.”

After high school, Jackson went to Arizona Western. But he never played there. The homesick teenager returned to Maryland and got a job at Harris Teeter. But Jackson wasn’t through with football, and to reach the NFL, he played wide receiver at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas, then switched to defensive back at East Mississippi Community College. That led to 21 games and one start in two seasons at Alabama before he transferred to Oregon, where he recorded three interceptions in his only season with the Ducks in 2023.

“I fell in love with the kid from the standpoint of his journey,” O’Connell said. “It’s been well-documented — his path of ultimately getting to Alabama after being at the junior-college level and then going to Oregon and having so much success.

“This kid was so ready for the runway that was out in front of him. I had no doubt he was going to have a huge impact on our team this year and in many, many years to come, just knowing how much growth and how much maturity a guy like that was already showing. His teammates absolutely adored him, loved him. I just can’t say how crushed I was in that moment really for Khyree and his family and, ultimately, his teammates and coaches that were very much looking forward to seeing him become the best version of himself as a Minnesota Viking.

“It just goes to show you how short life is and how we cannot take a single moment together that we have for granted because it can be taken away from you in a moment’s notice.”

According to the Maryland State Police report on the accident, Jackson was a passenger in a Dodge Charger that was involved in a three-vehicle wreck in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. State Troopers responded to the accident at 3:14 a.m. EDT July 6.

The Maryland State Police’s preliminary investigation indicated an Infiniti Q50 driven by Cori Imani Clingman struck the Charger and a Chevrolet Impala while attempting a lane change at a high rate of speed. The Charger left the road and hit several tree stumps, the police report said.

While the occupants of the other two vehicles were uninjured, the three occupants of the Charger, including driver Isaiah Hazel, and passenger Anthony Lytton Jr., were killed. Lytton and Hazel were teammates of Jackson’s at Dr. Henry Wise Jr. High School in Upper Marlboro.

The report indicated alcohol may have been a contributing factor in the crash.

But no charges have been filed, even though a spokesman for the Prince George’s County State’s Attorney’s Office, said on July 8 that investigators “are definitely moving quickly and expeditiously.”

A celebration of life for Jackson is scheduled for 11 a.m. EDT Friday at First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.