If Tarvaris Jackson always seemed to be on unsteady ground with the Minnesota Vikings, it made sense. He was an unsteady performer.
Now entering his second season with the Seattle Seahawks, Jackson feels far more comfortable. In Minnesota to train with Larry Fitzgerald for a second straight offseason, Jackson reflected recently on his time in the Twin Cities.
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"It just feels a lot different in Seattle," Jackson told KSTP-AM in St. Paul on Tuesday. "I feel like I'm welcome there. It was like home. It's a fresh start for me. I was looking forward to it, looking forward to getting that new start somewhere, and so far, it's been good."
Jackson earned the respect of teammates last season by playing through a painful pectoral injury. Both the Seahawks and his numbers were ordinary, however, and Seattle signed Matt Flynn -- Aaron Rodgers' former understudy with the Green Bay Packers -- in the offseason.
But as Pete Carroll has made exceedingly clear, Jackson has a shot to keep the gig and will enter training camp as the starter. Brett Favre -- who unretired and took his job twice during the preseason in Minnesota -- is nowhere in sight.
"I wouldn't say it was all bad," Jackson said of his time with the Vikings. "I was grateful to get this opportunity to play up here (in Minnesota) for five years. I lived here for five years. It's all I pretty much knew. But now I'm in Seattle, just trying to make the best out of the opportunity."
We still say Matt Flynn (and all that guaranteed money) will be starting Week 1 in September. But Jackson seems to have a legitimate opportunity in training camp. That's a surprise in and of itself.