Last year, after the Seahawks signed former Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, Seattle coach Pete Carroll said that Tarvaris had been “jerked around” in Minnesota. G.M. John Schneider was slightly more descriptive, saying that Jackson had been "[expletive] on.” (To his credit, Schneider owned the remark and apologized to the Vikings for it.)
Fast forward to 2012. Jackson, the starter for the Seahawks in 2011, now finds himself in a three-man quarterback competition that shows no signs of being resolved in the immediate future.
So does that constitute being “jerked around” or "[expletive] on”? Or both?
Regardless of the label, Carroll admitted on Tuesday that Jackson is getting a little frustrated.
“I think this is very difficult for him and I admire the heck out of this guy,” Carroll said, via Nick Eaton of seattlepi.com. “These guys [Matt Flynn and Russell Wilson] are battling to show what they know and where they are, and we have to assess that they can catch up with him. That’s what’s going on. So he’ll have to hold on for a little bit longer, and we’ll know more in a week.”
Jackson, who is taking the high road (for now), may not be frustrated simply by the fact that he has to contend with not one but two men trying to take his job. It could be that Jackson realizes that the diluted reps will make it harder for whoever wins the job to be fully prepared for the games that count.
And so, like so many of these situations, the guy who wins the job will essentially be securing dibs on the first shot at losing the job.