Hogs Haven
Jeffrey M’ba’s (umh-BAH) NFL journey spans three continents, includes four languages and took 27 years to reach fruition.
The big defensive tackle was born in Librevile, Gabon, on Africa’s west coast but would quickly call a different continent home, as he moved to France at age four. Jeffrey’s cultural immersion continued at age 13, when he relocated to Cameroon, a country he describes as a unique linguistic melting pot due to its colonial history with Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Through it all, athletics remained a constant in his life. Soccer was the base sport, but M’ba tried his hand at numerous others including track, biking, judo, and even horse riding. It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he decided to try American football. Shortly after, he made the decision to move to Baltimore to attend powerhouse St. Frances Academy at age 18. The culture shock was tangible and Jeffery discussed it in this interview with Tom Pelissero at the Senior Bowl.
Visa and transcript issues plagued him early in his career and after being rated a four-star coming out of high school and committing to Virginia, he had to de-commit and enroll at Independence Community College instead. Jeffrey would play there from 2020 to 2021 and finish as a top JUCO recruit.
His college journey mirrored his personal one and included multiple stops along the way. In 2022, he transferred to Auburn, where he played in 10 games as a reserve, totaling six tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble. He would enter the transfer portal again to play for the Purdue Boilermakers, totaling 16 tackles and a sack in 12 games as a reserve in 2023, before starting 12 games and totaling 30 tackles in 2024. M’ba would once again enter the transfer portal to play his senior season at SMU. There he finally put it all together with the Mustangs with career highs of 42 tackles, 5.0 sacks, and 7.5 TFL in his final college season.
