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Brady HendersonESPN
SEATTLE – The Seattle Seahawks cut their checks shortly after Saturday after defensive end Branden Jackson was deliberately fired, coach Pete Carroll said.
Replays showed Jackson’s helmet collided with that of attacking tackle Cedric Ogbuehi when the two were engaged on the line of scrimmage. Jackson fell on the turf and stayed there for a few minutes before the team’s medical staff strapped him on a backboard, with the face mask removed from his helmet and loaded him into an ambulance.
Jackson regained consciousness and has sensation in his arms and legs, according to a source. He was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
“I did not catch the replay, but he hit heads, I think, with Cedric and it probably caught him in the chin with his helmet, and it was like a knockout punch is what it was,” Carroll said. “So we took all the precautionary care and looked after him. He had exercise and all that kind of stuff, but we still had to do the right thing and take full care of him until we knew more.”
The play happened right before what would have been half of the Seahawks’ first inspection of training camp at CenturyLink Field. Carroll said she ended the scrimmage early out of respect for Jackson, calling him “one of our all-time boys, favorite boys.”
“I didn’t think it was okay to try to get everyone up and running again,” he said. “We did not have to do that, but we had done enough. We will take the plays we got and what we learned from them. We did the things we needed to complete to get to the stadium. “
The 27-year-old Jackson is entering his fifth NFL season. He left Texas Tech in 2016, spending his rookie season with the Raiders and the past three with Seattle. He has competed for a roster spot as one of the Seahawks’ rotating defensive points.
“I pray he’s OK,” quarterback Russell Wilson said, adding, “I believe he’s OK, it sounds like.”
According to statistics provided by the Seahawks, Wilson went 8-of-13 with a touchdown in his two discs, both coming against Seattle’s no. 2-defense. His touchdown pass was to wide receiver DK Metcalf.
The Seahawks have two more countermeasures planned over the next eight days.
“We didn’t get a lot of plays today, but we did have sequences and we got situations and we got enough third downs to challenge Russ and the crime there, so there were some really good things that happened,” Carroll said. . “Everything went really well other than us knocking BJ out. That was terribly sad.”
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