The battle for the Seattle Seahawks backup quarterback job will likely extend through the entire preseason, but Tarvaris Jackson made a case for winning the job against the San Diego Chargers Thursday night.
Jackson entered the game in the third quarter and led the Seahawks on three consecutive touchdown scoring drives, each of 50 yards or more. He looked completely comfortable back in the offense he piloted as the Seahawks starter in 2011. Jackson finished the game 8 of 9 for 128 yards and two touchdowns, including a perfect 42-yard strike to receiver Stephen Williams for a score, and finished with a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
Quinn played decently but wasn’t as strong as Jackson. Quinn replaced starter Russell Wilson in the second quarter and led the Seahawks to 10 points in four drives. However, his only touchdown drive was setup by a Byron Maxwell interception of Charlie Whitehurst that gave Seattle the ball at the Chargers 14-yard line. Three plays later Quinn hit Jermaine Kearse for an 11-yard score.
Jackson was re-signed by Seattle in June after being released by the Buffalo Bills. Jackson entered training camp with Seattle in 2012 as the team’s number one quarterback before being beat out by Wilson and Matt Flynn for the job. He was traded to Buffalo late in training camp and didn’t see game action last season.