Tarvaris Jackson, Charlie Whitehurst In Ersatz Seattle Seahawks Quarterback Competition

The Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback situation has gotten more complicated than ever; with Sam Bradford improving, Kevin Kolb installed, and Alex Smith backed up by a rookie, did Seattle make a mistake in entrusting the job to Tarvaris Jackson?

When the Seattle Seahawks signed embattled former Viking Tarvaris Jackson right out of the NFL free agency gate it seemed as though they’d anointed a starter for good—or at least for this year, with Matt Hasselbeck out of the picture following 10 years at the helm. But that’s been complicated Jackson’s mediocre performance in the preseason to date—he was 11-for-21 with just 75 yards in their loss to the Vikings—combined with the startling resurgence of Charlie Whitehurst, last year’s bewildering quarterback-of-the-future choice, who went 10-for-11 with 79 yards of his own.

Now Jackson has received the dreaded vote of confidence from Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. Seahawks fans have generally been less-than-enthused with their choices at the position following the Hasselbeck era, and Jackson’s statistics in five years as the Vikings’ Brett Favre buffer don’t warrant a lot of enthusiasm; the 28-year-old’s only extended stint as a starter, 2007, saw him put up some of his worst numbers, managing 6.5 yards per pass attempt while throwing 12 interceptions against nine touchdowns. In 2010, given 58 pass attempts, Jackson was notably worse than that. 

If he’s to hold the position against any challenger stiffer than Whitehurst Jackson will have to channel his performance from 2008 and 2009, where in limited time he threw 10 touchdowns against just two interceptions and pushed his Y/A up to 7.4.