Cornerback Michael Jackson played in four games in his first three seasons in the NFL. He’s been cut three times, traded twice and on the practice squads of three franchises.
So this week when the former Spain Park High School standout signed a two-year, $10.5 million contract extension, which included a $4 million signing bonus, $7.7 million in guaranteed money and the opportunity to earn $4 million in incentives, Jackson had a moment of reflection.
“When I first got it, I kind of, like, just sat quietly like, ‘OK, Mike, like, how are you going to go about this?’” Jackson said. “Like, ‘Are you just going to sit here and be happy? Are you going be, like, content?’ Like, yeah, this is nice. But, like, I want more, and not necessarily like money -- just more plays because I’m going on to Year 7, so it’s like it took a lot for me to get here -- like practice squad, two, three years playing and not playing. Like, I had a lot of moments where it’s, like, you got to look yourself in the mirror and, like, ‘Do you really want this?’
“So for me, it was just kind of, like, get yourself together and, like, celebrate, but understand that you still got to go to that place, like, come training camp – well, really before training camp, so just be ready and mentally ready for that because once you put that helmet on, money don’t matter.”
Jackson had an opportunity to become an unrestricted free agent last week. But he chose to re-sign with Carolina seven months after the Panthers obtained him in a trade with the Seattle Seahawks.
“It was more so like just be patient,” Jackson said. “I was just kind of anxious because it’s the talk all season. So probably maybe a week after the Super Bowl, it was just like, all right, I’m ready to go back to Carolina. Like, I already started watching film. I’m happy I’m here because if I would have went somewhere else, like mentally, I would be messed up because I’ve been watching all our film from last year.”
Jackson entered the NFL from Miami (Fla.) as a fifth-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys in 2019. In his first three NFL seasons, he played 29 defensive snaps in four games while appearing on the rosters of the Cowboys, Detroit Lions, New England Patriots and Seahawks. Twice, he got cut on his wife’s birthday.
But in 2022, Jackson started every game for Seattle. In response, the Seahawks signed Jackson to a one-year, $940,000 contract, then picked Devon Witherspoon at No. 5 in 2023 NFL Draft and started him in Jackson’s spot.
Jackson re-signed with Seattle in 2024 after the Seahawks tendered him as a restricted free agent. On Aug. 22, Seattle traded Jackson to the Panthers for linebacker Michael Barrett, a 2024 seventh-round draft choice who didn’t make the Seattle roster.
“I always have a saying: ‘My heart don’t pump Kool-Aid,’” Jackson said of his past disappointments in the NFL. “And in that moment, I could have went into a shell. But I didn’t, so I feel like that’s that. And when I got hurt in Seattle last year in training camp, I knew (new Seahawks coach) Mike Macdonald was going to make changes. And I got hurt and missed most of the training camp, and I really didn’t get a chance to show who I am, so that was, like, frustrating, because it’s like a new coach come in and you’re viewing me one way, but I know I’m this, but you haven’t seen it because I haven’t been out there on the field.”
The bumpy road made Jackson think about life without football, and he purchased an investment property in Pinson.
“I bought a piece of land, like, this is probably two weeks before the trade happened,” Jackson said. “I bought a piece of land in my hometown. And I was like, ‘This is something I can really, like, make some money off of just in case football don’t work out.’ Because for me, I’m a realist. Like, all right, Mike, you was drafted, cut, practice squad. Like, this might be the end of the road. And I have friends who it is the end of the road for them. So it was just like kind of my emergency plan.
“But when I got traded here, it was like a new sense of life. Like, (Carolina coach) Dave Canales always gave me a chance. And for that, I’m forever grateful, because he didn’t have to.”
In his first season with the Panthers, Jackson started every game, intercepted two passes, broke up 17 and made 76 tackles. He played 1,205 defensive snaps – the second-most in the NFL in 2024 – as well as 103 special-teams plays.
That workload meant Jackson’s new contract wasn’t the only bonanza for the former Alabama high school standout last week. The NFL also announced its performance-based pay bonuses for the 2024 season, and Jackson’s was the third-highest in the league at $1,035,260.
Performance-based pay started after the 2002 season with a goal of awarding bonuses to those who outplay their contract.
“I just feel like the payoff performance just showed, like, the amount of work I put in when nobody’s watching,” Jackson said. “Like, my trainer’s here, so we just had a moment because the last two weeks of my training, right before camp, we call it hell week, and literally it’s like two, three times a day. Like, basically his whole goal is to try to break me. And I ain’t going to lie, he did. Like, it was one day, like, he got me. So just to go from that moment all the way to here is kind of cool because everybody looks at the amount of money, and I’m thinking about how, like, I died on a hill and was thinking about life. So it’s kind of cool in that aspect. …
“But playing that amount of snaps, it’s just really all God. Like, he took care of me. Like, you don’t get through that amount of snaps without him because you got to understand that’s 1,200 game snaps; you still got practice, so it’s a lot of snaps. But it’s just God and my training. Like, in order to do something like that, you have to train uncommon. Like, you can’t just do the basics, so you have to go through those days where it hurts, you question life, you question, like, everything, because at the end of the day, this is what you’re doing it for -- for moments like this.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.