Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Austin Seferian-Jenkins: A good guy turning good

In less than three months, tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins has gone from bad guy to model citizen.

Those who take time to look beneath the surface would see Seferian-Jenkins has always been a person wanting to do good for others as well as himself.

It didn’t seem that way last June when Seferian-Jenkins was tossed out of an organized team activity practice session by Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter for what could only be described as bad-boy behavior — aka the kid who fell asleep in the back of the classroom.

Seferian-Jenkins didn’t understand the plays and displayed a less than positive attitude for a team that needs one very badly.

After Seferian-Jenkins removed himself from practice, speculation rose on how long it would take the Bucs to trade him as he floated down the depth chart.

Now a trade seems highly unlikely unless the Bucs get one of those offers they can’t refuse.

Seferian-Jenkins has turned himself into a new person (more likely his real self) and his talent has come along. In the Bucs’ preseason game at Jacksonville, he caught three passes for 38 yards and displayed the ability to make very difficult catches.

“We’re going to even out those reps with the first group with Cam (Brate) and Austin,” Koetter said. “All you can ask a player when he gets moved down is that he competes and does better and tries to get back up there and he’s done that. The catch in the second half that Austin made on the ‘bow-out’... There’s just not a whole lot of guys that can make that play. He’s earned a chance to get back and work more with the first group and we should give it to him.”

Best of all about Seferian-Jenkins is his attitude and a new sense of maturity he has displayed praising his teammates and taking ownership of his issues.

“Like Coach Koetter says if you are put down on the depth chart, all you can ask from players, not just myself, but the whole entire room, is to get better,” Seferian-Jenkins said. “And that is to perfect your craft, get detail-oriented and do what the coaches ask you to do. Nothing’s changed on my end. I’m working hard, I’m doing what I’m supposed to do and it just happens that it is showing up.”

We can give Koetter some credit for lighting a fire under Seferian-Jenkins, but in the end it’s the player who has to want to change. A coach can provide motivation, but can’t get inside a player’s head.

Seferian-Jenkins, the Bucs’ second-round pick in 2014, feels a sense of debt to Koetter for tossing him out of practice. It goes back to how he was raised.

“Training camp, you get here the first week and sometimes you’re rusty. I was rusty and I wasn’t doing things the way they asked me to do it, and that’s what happens,” Seferian-Jenkins said. “If you don’t do it the way the coaches ask you to do something and someone does it the way it’s supposed to be done, that’s just natural life. It’s a cool thing about Coach Koetter to not just teach us about football, but teach us about life and expectations and being able to follow through when you’re told to do something.

“I’ve really been very appreciative of everything Coach Koetter has done for me, the Bucs organization has done for me to help me continue to be a better football player and a person.”

The day he got tossed was very unlike Seferian-Jenkins.

He has carefully mapped out his life growing up in the state of Washington always with a desire to do the right thing and help others.

There have been mistakes, such as the DUI he received a year prior to the NFL draft. Luckily it wasn’t a disaster, and he vowed to correct the error of his ways often referring to the words of the Dr. Martin Luther King: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

He was taught by his mother, Linda, a social worker, to help others and has always embraced that role.

In that respect, he is similar Bucs rookie defensive end Noah Spence, who has overcome many of the same obstacles to change his behavior thanks in part to parents who advocate a similar lifestyle of helping others.

Sometimes these are the players who wind up being the high character guys of a football team. They’ve walked down the road of controversy and know the obstacles.

It’s part of what could make these Bucs a special team and Seferian-Jenkins one of the best tight ends in the NFL.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 10:50 PM with the headline "Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Austin Seferian-Jenkins: A good guy turning good."