Carroll said Jackson is starting — unless he can’t

By Liz Mathews

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said during his Monday press conference that he is approaching this week with Tarvaris Jackson as the starting quarterback.

“We talked about it — he says he feels OK,” Carroll said of Jackson. “He feels better than he did last week at this time. So that’s a really positive sign. He has shown improvement on a day to day basis and he’s very cognizant of what it feels like and all. I would think with today and tomorrow and Wednesday and we’ll see how the week goes but we’ll try to get him ready.

“Definitely in my mind, he’s starting unless he can’t at this point. So it’s a different way of looking at it this week than last week.”

Carroll said during his morning show that Jackson was not yet 100 percent recovered from his pectoral injury, and he had intended for Jackson to sit out one more week to fully heal. Jackson was active to play and had warmed up for Sunday’s game before Charlie Whitehurst was ultimately given the nod to start.

Jackson had come off the bench to replace Whitehurst and threw for a career-high 323 yards.

“I don’t know if I’ve conveyed to you guys… It was an injury of big concern,” Carroll said. “He was not able to take the snaps during the week to the same extent that Charlie was. Charlie took 85 percent of the snaps probably during the week.

“Not until we saw him come out on Saturday were we able to really evaluate that he was going to have a chance to play.”

Carroll said that Jackson will remain day to day this week, but is expected to practice and get the start this Sunday in Dallas.

Injury notes

Wide receiver Mike Williams is expected to practice this week despite missing the game on Sunday with a hamstring injury. Carroll said that Williams had pulled himself in and out of practices the week before, but he did not realize the extent of the injury until game day. Williams was not listed on last week’s injury report and was a surprise inactive before the Bengals game.

“So we go into the week rehabbing him and treating him with the thought that it wasn’t so severe that maybe we can get it taken care of early in the week and he’s all right,” Carroll said. “We think he should be OK.”

Tight end Cameron Morrah sustained a knee injury in Sunday’s game but it is not considered serious at this time.

Guard Robert Gallery got a little banged up early on Sunday, but was able to finish the game. “We thought about taking him out,” Carroll said. “At one time Tom [Cable] noticed that he was gimping a little bit, but then he came back fine and it was no problem.”

The Seahawks have not yet activated wide receiver Deon Butler off of the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. This will be Butler’s third week of practice and the team must make a roster decision by the end of the week.