Doubling down on T-Jack

Earlier this week, Seahawks players elected Tarvaris Jackson as one of their offensive captains. Designating the starting quarterback as a team captain is often an obligatory gesture; Jacksonville just fired David Garrard partly because his teammates declined to give him that honor. Of course, Garrard was a longtime veteran, while T-Jack is new to Seatle, so few would have noticed or commented had the Seahawks named Justin Forsett as the offensive captain.

Thus, this represents a strong statement of support for the starting quarterback from his teammates.

Responding to Jackson's critics, wide receiver Mike Williams said, "I just want to tell everybody, 'Back the hell up.' Let him play. Let him have his shot to work and come out here and do his thing."

The big wideout--a notorious first-round bust in Detroit--knows what it feels like to be doubted and reviled, so it's not surprising that he is so vehement in his defense of his teammate.

Displaying uncharacteristic consistency, Coach Carroll has stood steadfastly behind his anointed starter, even as evidence mounted in exhibition games suggesting that Charlie Whitehurst is probably our best bet at quarterback.

The preseason showed that our O-Line can't reliably provide adequate pass protection, and exposed Jackson as generally unable to cope with the blitz. Although T-Jack fared better in the final scrimmage against Oakland, we can expect opponents to continue to subject our quarterback to relentless pressure until our offense proves that blitzing won't work against us.

Jackson's true trial by fire commences tomorrow. Vic Fangio, San Francisco's defensive coordinator, showed at Stanford that he likes to go for the jugular and call blitz after blitz.

Moreover, our offensive line never achieved consistent chemistry in the preseason. Left tackle Russell Okung sat out most of the games with yet another high ankle sprain. James Carpenter struggled at right tackle, giving way increasingly to practice squad graduate Breno Giacomini, who'll start tomorrow while Carpenter slides inside to fill in at left guard until Robert Gallery recovers from a sprained knee.

If Tom Cable can field an effective front five this afternoon, he will confirm his reputation as one of the league's elite line coaches.

Although Seattle tends to struggle on the road, ir is probably good for T-Jack that the season opener is not at home. If it were at Seahawks Stadium, the 12th Man might be chanting for Charlie before kickoff. Playing in San Francisco today give Jackson a chance to perform at a high level, to show that he deserves the chance the coaches have given him, to seize an opportunity to win the hearts of Seattle fans before coming back for the home opener.

Even if you believe--as I do--that Charlie Whitehurst should be our starter, it is madness to hope for T-Jack to fail. Today makes the first division game of an unusually challenging season schedule that includes many East Coast road games. We need this win, and we already have our work cut out for us, between injuries and high turnover among our starters, exacerbated by a lockout-shortened offseason. It is hard to imagine us winning without a good showing by our quarterback.

Jackson detractors (like me) need to cultivate a sense of humility. We've drawn our conclusions based upon a limited data set: what we know of his stint in Minnesota, plus his performance in exhibition contests as a Seahawk. Seattle coaches, on the other hand, have run and monitored practices, and have studied game film more closely than any fan or journalist. Evidently, that additional information has led them to conclude that T-Jack is The Man. I fear they're wrong, but I hope they're right, so I wish Jackson, the coaches and the rest of the team the best in today's game.

Go, Seahawks!