Tre Brown back to challenge for his Seahawks job? Business as usual for Michael Jackson
For Michael Jackson, his coach’s constant “always compete” isn’t a mantra.
It’s a way of NFL life.
To begin this Seahawks season, Jackson has started the first eight games of his four-year career. Last year’s practice-squad player was coach Pete Carroll’s surprise pick out of the preseason to start at left cornerback. That was while 2021 starter Tre Brown was on the physically-unable-to-perform list because of his major knee surgery last November.
Brown, the team’s second pick in the 2021 draft, returned to practice last week for the first time since his injury.
It’s more than a coincidence last weekend was the best game of Jackson’s career.
A team-high seven tackles. Three passes defensed. The New York Giants targeted Jackson most of Sunday’s game, including on the first play, while avoiding Tariq Woolen, the rookie right cornerback and NFL co-leader in interceptions.
Jackson mostly repelled them.
He made a tackle short of the line to gain on the Seattle’s first defensive play. Later in the first quarter, he knocked away a pass from Daniel Jones to force a Giants punt. In the second quarter he broke up another third-down pass after Seattle had taken a 7-0 lead. In the fourth quarter he stopped New York running back Saquon Barkley immediately after a catch for no gain.
Jackson was no small reason the surprising, first-place Seahawks (5-3) beat the previously 6-1 Giants rather handily, 27-13.
“I thought it was his best game,” Carroll said. “He tackled well, hit well, covered consistently, challenged, for the most part. He had a few plays that he needs to fix, but all in all, he was really active. Obviously, he got targeted, so he got some shots.
“He came through in a big fashion.”
Asked if he thought Jackson was responding to the challenge of Brown returning from injury intent to reclaim the starting job from him, Carroll said: “Maybe. You never know. Competition works in special ways.
“I don’t know that specifically, but in general, that is going to be a factor because Tre is a good football player. When he gets back to game speed and is ready to go, he’s going to try to make something happen himself, so we will see how it goes.
“There is nothing I love more than seeing that. It’s hard, guys kind of get comfortable like, ‘I have my spot, and I own it,’ but it’s not always like that. That is what good comp does.”
There’s no “maybe” about it for Jackson.
A guy who has been released three times in the league, who has been on the practice squads of three teams (Dallas, New England, Seattle) is ALWAYS competing to keep what he’s scrapped to earn.
“It’s the NFL. It’s a job. Nobody’s spot’s locked in,” Jackson said Wednesday on his way out to practice for the Seahawks’ game at NFC West-rival Arizona (3-5) Sunday (1:05 p.m., channel 13).
“That competition, that comes with it.”
Brown was full go in practice Wednesday. He’s pushing to get activated to the 53-man roster by the end of this week. The team has one more week after this one to decide whether to put Brown on the active roster, or put him on injured reserve for the rest of the season if they believe he’s not ready to play.
Tre Brown vs. Michael Jackson
The decision spot with Brown coming back is the left cornerback spot opposite Woolen. The wonder teammates call “Avatar” isn’t going anywhere. Not with the wowing debut he’s had that has him in consideration for NFL defensive rookie of the year at the season’s halfway point. Brown started on the left for three games last season until he ruptured the patellar tendon in his knee last November.
Jackson is pushing to make Carroll’s and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt’s decision on where to put Brown a tough one.
Jackson says the reason he got a spot on the Seahawks’ practice squad in early September 2021, three days after the Patriots released him, was for his tackling. He’s a physical corner big for his position, 6 feet 1 and 210 pounds. That, to him, is his NFL calling card.
“You said he’s here for his tackling? Well, he’s selling himself short,” Hurtt said Wednesday. “He’s here for a lot more than that. He’s been covering unbelievably.
“It started back in the spring time with him. I would say tackling is a big strong part of his game, but he can cover. I love his competitiveness, his spirit. He’s nice and steady, never too high and never too low. He holds himself to a high standard, so I’m really, really excited for him.”
Now that he’s playing so much, Jackson says his skills anticipating the cuts and moves of receivers and where the quarterback is going to throw the ball have greatly improved the last two months.
“Oh, a lot, because now I actually get actual, live game reps,” Jackson said. “There’s a big difference between practice and the game, just the speed. So just getting more reps allowed me to get more comfortable out there, and allowed me to get to the ball.”
Speed wins
It’s true for rookie, four-year veterans, 10-year pros: players who think are slow to react, slower to play. Guys who are comfortable knowing and doing play freer, and thus faster.
At cornerback, speed wins. Just ask Woolen, the 4.26-second man in the 40-yard dash.
“The speed of the game has slowed down to where I know,” Jackson said. “This last game, the pass breakup I had on our sideline, first quarter (to New York’s Marcus Johnson to deny a Giants third and 7), I knew I was on a backside (opposite of the play call and flow to his right) read. That’s why I had time to react and get there.”
He said he later gave up a third-down catch to Darius Slayton when his coverage responsibility was a front-side read. He tackled Slayton as he made the catch at the line to gain.
His lesson: He must be on higher alert and quicker to the ball on front-side reads, because the defensive call depends on it.
“Before, I never even thought of that,” Jackson said. “For me, it was cool to see that difference. It makes the game way more fun.”
Jackson thinks he’s done “all right.” He laments dropping an interception, giving up a touchdown, “a couple passes” in eight games.
“But for me, I just want to get better each game. I feel I’ve done that,” he said. “You put on the tape — not even looking at this last game — you put on the Chargers tape, you put on any game before that, I feel like my play has gotten better each week.
“I like that.”
He also knows, and says: “I have to continue to do that.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2022 at 8:34 AM.
