By Jay Skurski
Tarvaris Jackson was pumped up to get to Buffalo.
So pumped up, in fact, that he took a redeye flight from Seattle that left at 11:30 p.m. Sunday night, after learning of his trade from the Seahawks to the Bills.
“I’m not really looking forward to those anymore, but it was cool. I was excited about getting here,” Jackson said this afternoon after taking part in his first practice with his new team.
Jackson did not take part in team drills, but was on the field throwing to receivers as part of his work with quarterbacks coach David Lee.
Jackson spent just one season with the Seahawks, and it was marred by a torn pectoral muscle on his throwing side, an injury he suffered in Week Five.
“Obviously I wanted to play better. I didn’t want to get hurt,” Jackson said. “I was limited in practice. I probably practiced like once a week, maybe, on limited throws.”
Jackson gutted through the injury – missing only one game – after Seahawks trainers told him he wasn’t at risk of further hurting himself. He struggled in his first two weeks back, however, throwing four interceptions with no touchdown passes.
“We started slow and we were a young offense last year,” Jackson said. “The defense kind of held us down a little bit until we got ourselves down on offense and got the running game going.”
The Seahawks went 5-3 over the final eight weeks, with running back Marshawn Lynch averaging 100 yards per game. But Jackson still averaged almost 30 throws a game over that stretch, so it’s not as if they were hiding him.
Over the final seven weeks, he threw eight touchdowns against four interceptions.
I said ‘Well, let’s give it a shot and see what happens,’ ” he said of playing through his injury. “I gave it a shot and it turned out well.”
