Tarvaris Jackson
| refer to caption Tarvaris Jackson at the Vikings 2008 Training Camp. | |||||||||
| Minnesota Vikings | |||||||||
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| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | Alabama State | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 2006 / round: 2 / pick: 64 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics as of Week 2, 2008 | |||||||||
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Tarvaris Jackson (born April 21, 1983 in Montgomery, Alabama) is an American football quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Vikings in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft. He played college football at Alabama State.
College career
Jackson played in I-A during the 2001 season and part of 2002 while attending the University of Arkansas. A shoulder injury kept him from starting full time and when it was decided Matt Jones would start at quarterback instead of him, he transferred to Alabama State University, a historically black Division I-AA institution in his hometown of Montgomery. During Jackson's senior year, he amassed 2,655 yards, 25 touchdowns, and only 5 interceptions with a 61.1% completion rate. Jackson has been given several nicknames such as T-Jack. In three seasons at Alabama State, Jackson completed 537 of 985 attempts for 7,838 yards, with 67 touchdown passes and 27 interceptions. In the combine, NFL scouts marveled at his arm strength and mobility.
Professional career
2006 NFL Draft
The Vikings scouting and personnel had reportedly been watching him closely in secret over his senior season, particularly liking his performance in the East-West Shrine Game. They were also impressed by his workout at the scouting combine (among the top-5 quarterbacks in ball speed and 40 yard dash). Several NFL teams including the Vikings had arranged secret workouts with him too. Jackson was selected with the last pick in the 2nd round (64th overall) of the 2006 NFL Draft, while he was projected to go much later in the 4th-7th rounds. The Vikings traded two 3rd round picks to get the 2nd round pick with which they drafted Jackson, fearing he may get picked sooner than anticipated. Jackson's early selection caused some surprise as he was the 5th quarterback taken and the 1st Division I-AA player selected (the last I-AA quarterback drafted was Spergon Wynn in 2000). He was also the first quarterback from Alabama State to be drafted into the NFL since Ricky Jones in 1992. Even Jackson was surprised by the pick saying, "I was more focused on [getting drafted in] the third round and even that was stretching it".[1] Most pre-draft publications didn't even have him listed as one of the top 10 eligible quarterbacks, while he was the 5th selected. On 26 July 2006, Jackson signed a four year deal with Minnesota, including a $1 million signing bonus.[2]
Vikings coach Brad Childress was quoted days before the draft as saying he was interested in finding a "developmental guy", a "diamond in the rough" quarterback of the future, raw talent he could teach a system.[3] Both new coach Childress and Vikings former quarterback Brad Johnson have had a lot of success developing quarterbacks in the past - A.J. Feeley and Donovan McNabb owe a lot of their success to Childress, and Chris Simms says Brad Johnson was the best tutor he's ever had. Jackson's quarterback coach at Alabama State, Reggie Barlow, played wide receiver with Brad Johnson at Tampa Bay so Tarvaris had been looking forward to learning from him. Other Vikings coaches have experience developing quarterbacks too. Vikings Quarterbacks Coach Kevin Rogers had developed Donovan McNabb in college. And Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell had spent time as Quarterbacks Coach to Brett Favre too. The use of two 3rd round picks showed how much they felt Tarvaris was the guy they wanted to use their skills to develop.
The day after the draft Vikings coach Childress was quoted by the St. Paul Pioneer Press as saying: "I think you judge quarterbacks a little bit differently...When you see what you want at the quarterback position, you need to go get it. And that's exactly what I see with Tarvaris Jackson is a guy that's a piece of clay, that has all the skills in terms of, No. 1, what's he look like throwing the football?...He's got a great throwing motion; he's athletic. He has all those things that we're looking for, and he's wired right. That's important for a quarterback. I think he's a flatline guy. I think he's a sponge. You're talking about a guy that never had a coach there as a quarterback coach. So what can he do with coaching?"[4] Jackson's agent, Joel Segal, said: "After the draft, there were two clubs that expressed disappointment and were mad they didn't get him. They were planning to take (Jackson) very high in the third round, and were lamenting the fact that the Vikings beat them".
2006 rookie seasonJackson's 2006 pre-season passer rating was 106.1, 15th in the league out of 110 quarterbacks who performed. Only one quarterback from his draft class (Jay Cutler) did better. He also showed great scrambling skills averaging 11.3 yards in rushing (the only Viking other than Brad Johnson to average more than 3.3 yards in rushing). ESPN analyst Mike Tirico referred to Jackson as a right-handed Michael Vick. His pre-season performance was enough to surpass 2nd and 3rd string QBs Mike McMahon and J.T. O'Sullivan on the depth chart. After the pre-season, McMahon and O'Sullivan were cut from the team and Brooks Bollinger was brought in, who Jackson then competed against for the number two spot. On September 25, 2006, Tarvaris Jackson had minor knee surgery to repair the meniscus in his knee. He returned to limited practice after two weeks, and then came back to play his first NFL game with the Vikings in week 13 against the Chicago Bears[6] in the fourth quarter after Johnson was benched for throwing four interceptions and backup QB Brooks Bollinger was injured. Jackson completed three of his four passes before fumbling the ball to Chicago and the Bears then ran the clock out. Following this game when Jackson was asked if he was ready to take over as starter he said "Not really." and "We still have a chance to make the playoffs, so we're still trying to do that. So it's obvious that Brad is still our quarterback so we can stay on that."[7] Two weeks later in week 15 Johnson started the game but was benched in the fourth quarter when the Vikings had been underperforming the entire game losing by a score of 26-7 at the time Jackson went in late in the third quarter against the New York Jets. Although Johnson hadn't thrown an interception that game and had a respectable passer rating of 94.2 in the game, the Minnesota fans jeered Johnson throughout the game and chanted "We want Jackson!" at numerous points because Johnson had only thrown 9 touchdowns all season (in 14 games) and had a career worst 71.9 passer rating throughout the season. Jackson received a standing ovation as he trotted out onto the field. A landmark in Jackson's career happened that game when Jackson completed his first touchdown pass to Mewelde Moore. Jackson threw 177 yards, a TD, and ran three times for 20 yards while the Jets protected their large lead. He also threw an interception in the red zone. Jackson was named the starting quarterback for Minnesota mid-way through his rookie season. Jackson's first game was a week 16 night game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Game conditions were very poor. A steady rain fell throughout the evening and the kickoff temperature was only 36-degrees Fahrenheit. The Vikings lost by a score of 9-7 with the only Vikings score coming from an interception for a touchdown by defensive back Fred Smoot. The offense set a franchise low record of only three first downs the whole game, didn't get close enough to the end zone to even attempt a field goal, and only had 27 passing yards gained against the NFL's 19th ranked defense (ranked 26th against the pass). Jackson had a passer rating of 36.5, had a 50% completion rate (10-20 for 50 yards), 1 interception, and a fumble. Packers quarterback Brett Favre only managed a slightly better 52% completion rate (26-50) and threw 2 interceptions. He did throw for 285 yards, though, but couldn't find the end zone either. Despite the performances lack of "merit" (according to Childress), number 7 out of Alabama State remained the starter for the rest of the regular season. 2007Tarvaris did not live up to the Vikings' expectations in 2007 despite finishing 8-4 as a starter. Jackson had 9 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, along with a 159 yards per game, causing the Vikings to have the second-worst passing offense in the NFL. His 70.8 passer rating was 28th among NFL quarterbacks. Jackson missed three games because of injuries, which included a strained groin, a concussion and a fractured index finger. The Vikings failed to make the playoffs. Analysts put the Vikings' 8-8 record on the successful running of Chester Taylor and rookie Adrian Peterson, which has proven to take the pressure off of Jackson and the defense. Later in the season, opponents decided to focus all their defensive efforts on stopping Peterson and the Vikings running game while daring Jackson to beat them in the passing game. The Washington Redskins successfully utilized five defensive lineman or four linebackers against the Vikings, leaving only two or three defensive backs in pass coverage.[8][9] And the 49ers blitzed their cornerbacks 20 percent of the time instead of covering receivers with them.[10][11] On the season's last game against the Broncos Jackson led the Vikings to two fourth quarter drives to tie the game and send it into overtime. In overtime Jackson fumbled on the second play of overtime and the Vikings lost the game. Jackson showed slow improvement over the season: he played a large role when the Vikings went on a five-game winning streak in November, but also showed his inexperience in several ill-judged interception plays, jump passes, and turnovers. After the season, Childress would not say if Tarvaris Jackson would be the starter in 2008, explaining that he wanted to "evaluate the total body of work" first.[12] 2008There was a lot of media coverage on Jackson the summer of 2008. The Vikings returned seven players that were in the 2007 Pro Bowl (only three teams had more), and spent $60 million in guaranteed contract money upgrading their team with free agents Jared Allen, Bernard Berrian, and Madieu Williams. Several analysts believed better quarterback play was all that was needed to make the Vikings one of the top contending teams in the NFL, and with the Packers losing Brett Favre the NFC North Division was up for grabs. Sport's Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman predicted the Vikings would win the Super Bowl.[13] Coach Childress decided to stay with Jackson as the starting QB and brought in Gus Frerotte to be his backup. It was widely reported in the off-season that Jackson had a new swagger, handled situations in practice well where he looked lost in the previous years, and had an improved grasp of the Vikings offensive system.[14] Childress threw a "Coaching 101" clinic for media reporters in which he played a tape of Jackson showing the progress he made in 2007 through a series of missed passes or poor decisions that he made in early games but executed properly in later contests and concluded with some tape of him hitting a target net with every 15-yard pass he threw during an offseason drill.[15] Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell repeatedly told the press that although it was Jackson's third year with the Vikings it was really his second year playing, and NFL quarterbacks improve the most between their first and second years.[16] Jackson had another good preseason, until he injured his knee again in the second preseason game which kept him from playing the last two preseason games. In the first game of the regular season Jackson threw a game-ending interception and in the second game the Vikings made six field goal attempts and no touchdowns. The Vikings lost both games by close margins, Jackson's 64.8 passer rating ranked him 26th in the NFL, and the fans booed him loudly throughout the second game.[17] Childress said in the second post-game press conference that Jackson would still definitely be the starter next week, but on Monday after a coaches' meeting he changed his mind and benched Jackson for the remainder of the year.[18] Career statisticsCollege
NFL
Personal lifeTarvaris Jackson lives in Bloomington, Minnesota with his wife and has one son, Tarvaris II, who was born September 14, 2007. References
External links
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