The Tarvaris Jackson Dicotomy

An interesting dicotomy is developing regarding Tarvaris Jackson. Is he a potential starter, or is he going to get cut? Is he a scrub, or a team captain? The answer to those questions depends greatly on who you ask.

Brock Huard isn’t the only one who’s being critcal of Jackson, but he is probably the most notable considering his local and ESPN ties, and his   history playing the position. According to Huard, Jackson peaked in his third year in the league, and is clearly the weakest link in the QB competition. Huard said on his bog that he believes Jackson will have to take a substantial pay cut in order to stay with the team. From my perspective, most of the fans seem to agree with Huard.

Pete Carroll and many of the players seems to be on the other side of the perspective. Doug Baldwin recently said that Jackson and Flynn are even in the competition, despite what you might have heard. Also remember that Jackson was voted by the players to be a team captain last season, so the players believe in him.

Personally, I find it interesting at how quickly things changed. during the 2011 season, Jackson was a favorite among fans. When I called him out after 3 downright awful games to start the season, my inbox was filled with hate mail telling me to lay off. As the season wore on the general vibe I was getting from the fans was that everyone wanted to see how he’d do when healthy and with a good line.

Then after the season ended, it was like Jackson suddenly said he hated puppies or something. He went from generally liked (though not loved) to persona-non-grata almost overnight. It wasn’t surprising, but it also was rather confusing.

Personally, I think the truth lies in the middle. Too often we try and make every issue back or white, when reality actually comes in an infinite number of greys. Jackson isn’t as bad as his critics say he is, and he isn’t as good or promising as his fans believe. Jackson is a lot like Billy Volek or Jason Campbell; a borderline starter, who will likely end up as one of the better backups in the league. He’s good enough that people will want to give him a chance, but not quite good enough to make the most of that chance.

I think that the Seahawks could do much worse than having Jackson at QB. I also think that they could do much better. The problem that I see is that I’m not sure that “much better” is on the roster right now. We’ll have to wait and see.

Matt Flynn might end up being an upgrade, and I very much think that he will be, but don’t fool yourself into thinking he’s the next Tom Brady.