A day after Jackson admitted he was in limbo in Seattle, the Seahawks announced they had traded him away. Seattle general manager John Schneider was not on the job when the Seahawks drafted Jackson out of Southern California.
Neither was Pete Carroll, Jackson's former coach at USC, or the rest of Seattle's defensive staff. They are installing schemes that call for ends to be run stuffers or fast pass rushers, and Jackson has so far proven to be neither.
Jackson becomes the latest arrival onto Detroit's revamped defensive line. Veteran tackle Kyle Vanden Bosch and Ndamukong Suh, the second overall pick in April's draft, arrived earlier to help rescue the NFL's worst defense.
In Seattle, former tackle Red Bryant has moved his 335-plus pounds to end on one side of the starting defense. Seattle traded this offseason with Philadelphia for former part-time linebacker Chris Clemons to be its pass-rushing end, then acquired 315-pound defensive tackle and end Kentwan Balmer from San Francisco on Monday.
Jackson, who returned to practice Tuesday after missing a week with a bad hamstring, sensed he lost his place in Seattle's defense this summer. The 6-foot-4, 270-pounder was not big enough to be the run-stopping end and is not yet enough of a proven pass rusher to become a specialist.
"I'm kind of in the middle of both extremes," he said after Tuesday's practice. "Everything is still up in the air right now."
Not anymore. He's headed to the Lions, cast off for a draft pick as Carroll and Schneider continue to turn over half of Seattle's roster since January.
The pick Seattle is getting from Detroit is likely in the same low round next year as the one the Seahawks had just lost to the 49ers to get Balmer, who was drafted one choice behind Jackson in 2008.
Jackson started 24 of 31 games in his two seasons with Seattle. He had a career-high 4 sacks last season.
"Detroit showed strong interest in Lawrence and this provides him an opportunity to move forward while he is still early in his career," Schneider said. "We wish him the best."
The Seahawks filled Jackson's roster spot before Wednesday's practice by signing free-agent defensive tackle Amon Gordon. Gordon went to Mariner High School in the Seattle suburb of Everett before leaving for San Diego prior to his senior year.
The 28-year-old called being back home for the first time since high school "absolutely awesome."
He initially was a 270-pound linebacker at Stanford before he entered the NFL with Cleveland in 2004. He then had microfracture knee surgery and bounced to Denver, Baltimore and Tennessee through 2008. Gordon reached an injury settlement with Philadelphia last year and was with New England for workouts this offseason.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
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