Buffalo Bills Release Veteran RB Fred Jackson

The Buffalo Bills released veteran running back Fred Jackson, who has spent entire NFL career with the Bills franchise since 2006.

The team announced the development Monday, and Jackson also confirmed the news on Twitter. There were no ill feelings in this separation as both the team and player showed gratitude to each other.

"Fred is a heck of a football player and person. This is the toughest day I've had since I've been here,” head coach Rex Ryan said about the release of Jackson, who was undrafted in the 2003 NFL draft, and joined the Bills in 2006.

"Today, we had to make the difficult decision to release Fred Jackson. He had an incredible career for this organization for the past 10 years,” Bills general manager Doug Whaley said in a statement. "We also let everybody know that everybody was on board. Reluctantly, because of the magnitude of this player and what he means, not only to the Buffalo Bills, but to the community of Buffalo -- him and his family. So we talked to [owners] Terry [Pegula] and Kim [Pegula] and conversed with them and decided that this was the best time to make that decision."

Jackson led the Bills in rushing yards in the 2014 season with 535 rushing yards on 141 carries with 2 touchdowns in 14 games. For his Buffalo career, he has a total of 5,646 rushing yards on 1,279 carries with 30 touchdowns in 106 regular season games.

Jackson's workload with the team will be assumed by LeSean McCoy, who was acquired by the Bills in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles earlier in the offseason.