KIRKLAND – The Seattle Seahawks ended days of talk, and months of unhappy relations, by finally cutting ties with disgruntled wide receiver Darrell Jackson on Sunday.
In the minutes leading up to the fourth round of the NFL draft, the Seahawks and San Francisco completed a deal that sent Jackson to the 49ers in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick. Seattle eventually used that pick to select Georgia Tech offensive lineman Mansfield Wrotto.
“I think it had reached a point with the organization where enough is enough, and let’s see if we can honor his request for a trade,” coach Mike Holmgren told reporters on Sunday. “So, that’s what happened.
“I’m sorry that it is within the division. I have tremendous respect for Darrell as a football player, but we did it.”
Holmgren admitted that he didn’t initially agree with team president Tim Ruskell’s desire to trade Jackson, but the coach said that they eventually “had to settle on something.”
When speaking to Bay Area reporters on Sunday, Jackson sounded more relieved than anything. He said that the genesis of his problems started shortly after Ruskell replaced Bob Whitsitt as team president in Feb. 2005.
“I was promised certain things (by Whitsitt), and when the new regime came in, they didn’t really want to hear that,” he said in a conference call after passing a physical with the 49ers the previous day. “Tim Ruskell is just going in a new direction. … I wasn’t one of his guys.”
Jackson, 28, leaves Seattle as one of the most productive receivers in franchise history. In seven seasons with the team, he ranked among the team’s top three in three career categories: receiving touchdowns (47), receiving yards (6,445) and receptions (441). He had a team-high 63 receptions for 956 yards and 10 touchdowns last season.
While he struggled with dropped passes in 2004, Jackson didn’t begin to fall out of favor with the team until the following offseason, when he skipped a voluntary minicamp because of an undocumented, financial promise that he said Whitsitt had made to him. Jackson maintained that Whitsitt promised to add some unwritten incentives to the six-year, $25 million contract he had signed before the 2004 season. Multiple media outlets later reported that Whitsitt was quoted as denying any agreement had been made.
“He has been bothered by a contract he signed for a while,” Holmgren told reporters on Sunday. “As (much) as I tried to find positives for that, he struggled with it. I don’t think it affected his play, I really don’t. But the extra things that our players are doing right now – the offseason program, the minicamps – he just chose not to do those.”
Jackson suffered a knee injury four games into the historic 2005 season, then didn’t help his reputation later that year when he shrugged off his absence by telling reporters: “the best thing about it is that I still get my check.”
Offensive coordinator Gil Haskell said Sunday that Jackson’s health and lack of practice time became a concern.
“Darrell had a good career here; he’s a good man,” Haskell said. “But the last two years he was hurt a lot.”
While Jackson continually produced on the field – quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has repeatedly called him his go-to receiver – his injuries and unhappiness eventually led the team to deal him.
“Ever since I have been here, we all know he has not been happy,” Ruskell said. “… We want you to be here. We want you to be happy to be a Seahawk and to work well without your teammates. That’s what we want, and we just never really seemed to get to that point.”
Ruskell said that there was no watershed moment that led to the trade, only that Jackson had to be moved. He admitted that there was not much outside interest in Jackson, which is why the Seahawks had to settle for a mid-round draft pick and send him to a division rival.
“I don’t like doing that,” Ruskell said of trading Jackson to another NFC West team. “But that’s just kind of how it fell. That’s where the interest laid.
“We’ll be fine. San Francisco beat us twice last year – and we had Darrell.”
Jackson, whose current contract is scheduled to pay him $4.58 million this year and $6.08 million in 2008, said he’s looking forward to facing his former team.
“You know that makes it that much sweeter that I can go back and face my old team,” Jackson told reporters in the Bay Area. “I’ve been looking forward to becoming a 49er ever since I heard the talk about the trade.”
The trade opens the door for D.J. Hackett or Nate Burleson to move into the starting lineup at split end. Deion Branch will move over to in Jackson’s flanker position, while veteran Bobby Engram is likely to continue in his role as slot receiver. The Seahawks also have 2006 draft pick Ben Obomanu and two players who were selected in the sixth round of this weekend’s draft: Courtney Taylor of Auburn and Jordan Kent of Oregon.
There is plenty of potential at the receiver position, but all of those players have a long way to go to match Jackson’s production in Seattle.
In the end, production wasn’t enough to keep Jackson in Seattle.
“It’s like your child every once in a while,” Holmgren told reporters. “When they are little and they are pouting around and angry, they kind of act a certain way. And you put up with it for a while, and then you say: Stop it.
“That’s kind of what happened.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
