Just seeing the job gets done
For someone who has put up the numbers he has in his first four years to earn the kind of numbers he got in the off-season, Darrell Jackson has kind of slipped under the radar at the Seattle Seahawks’ training camp so far.
“That’s Darrell. Darrell’s never been a boisterous guy on the field,” Seahawks wide receivers coach Nolan Cromwell said. “He’s a worker. He comes out and does his job. He’s a professional, he’s really a true professional. When he steps on the field it is all work.”
Still, Jackson, the 15th wide receiver selected when the Hawks picked him up in the third round of the 2000 draft, has put up numbers to get noticed.
He has started 55 of 61 games (he was injured for three games two years ago), catching 253 passes for 3,808 yards and 27 touchdowns.
The TDs are already 10th in Seahawks history and his 16.7 average on 68 catches last season was second in the NFL.
That translated into a six-year, $25 million contract that included an $8 million signing bonus.
“There is not any pressure at all. I feel like I’m just a regular guy on this team,” Jackson said between practices at training camp at Eastern Washington University. “There are a lot of guys on this team, there are a lot of stars on this team, a lot of Pro Bowlers on this team. I’m just a guy on the team. Just because they gave me a contract doesn’t mean there is extra pressure. I just have to keep going out there and doing what I’ve been doing.
“I’m a low-key guy.”
That’s probably why, despite the big numbers and the big bucks, Jackson hasn’t been big news at camp. He just goes about his business, staying after practice to stretch with the other receivers and escaping the field the back way to avoid a lot of the attention.
“We’re trying to stay healthy, take care of our bodies,” Jackson said of the extra work. “We’re older and wiser, these are the type of things you need to do. The younger guys, their legs are a little bit better than ours. When I was a young guy I didn’t need to stretch either.”
But he does need to continue to improve.
“I think I could do a whole lot better. I’m content with (the statistics), but I don’t rest on it,” he said. “I have been doing a pretty good job, but I could be better.”
“Consistency,” Cromwell said. “That is the key. Not that Darrell hasn’t been consistent over his whole career, but … we all need to work on consistency. That is one of the things that he has to work on.”
The coach said that goes from running routes to weekly preparation.
“I don’t think the preparation (has been consistent). I think it’s just a growing thing,” Cromwell said. “There are a lot of distractions. Guys need to learn to deal with it, this is their job… . They know how they should prepare but sometimes they let distractions get in the way.”
That led to dropped passes last year, about three dozen for the team with about a third of them credited to Jackson.
“We talked all off-season about the drops that we had and I told them, ‘That’s last year, it’s over, clean slate. We’re not going to talk anymore about it. Go out and catch the ball,’ ” Cromwell said.
And that is what Jackson has been doing in camp.
Swift kick
The first real pressure situation in camp turned out to be a dry run.
Practice concluded on Wednesday with a best-of-five kicking competition between incumbent Josh Brown, representing the offense, and rookie Tyler Fredrickson for the defense.
At stake was curfew extended an hour.
Both connected from 32, 37 and 42 yards before Fredrickson missed wide-left at 48.
Head coach Mike Holmgren, commissioner of the kick-off, gave him a second chance, saying there was movement on the line (it was a skeleton snapper-holder-kicker drill), but Fredrickson missed left again.
After Brown coaxed a 53-yarder over the bar, Holmgren said the next kick counted double for the rookie, but his kick fell short and the offense celebrated.
However, when all was said and done, Holmgren, who said before the competition, “If you have the losing kicker you can harass the (heck) out of him,” gave the whole team an extra hour.
“I haven’t had one fine come across my desk in this training camp and last year we set the world record so I decided that they all get an extra hour tonight,” he said. “They’re working real hard and the feeling is really good on the team.”
Holmgren was upbeat even though Wednesday wasn’t the best practice through the first 10 days.
“I thought we started off kind of sloppy and then I changed up practice a little bit without telling the coaches, trying to get the players thinking a little bit,” he said. “I expect consistency and effort. They gave me the effort, it was just they struggled today. I think they were mentally tired.”
Notes
More bodies were available on Wednesday. Robbie Tobeck and Floyd “Pork Chop” Womack returned to the starting offensive line and cornerback Bobby Taylor took some turns in the secondary. … … In the red zone drill, the No. 1 offense came up short in its first attempt when cornerback Marcus Trufant knocked away a Matt Hasselbeck pass on third down. On its second chance, the No. 1’s drew “ahs” when Bobby Engram stretched to fingertip a Hasselbeck pass over the middle in the end zone. The 2’s got a pair of scores on Seneca Wallace passes, first to Koren Robinson then to Casey Poppinga. … First-round draft pick Marcus Tubbs spent his first full day as a pro going through conditioning drills after being sent back in to dress in full pads in the morning. … The Seahawks, hoping to decrease the strain on Hasselbeck and Wallace with Trent Dilfer and Brock Huard out with back problems, worked out rookie Bryson Spinner from Richmond, who was briefly in Jacksonville’s camp.