Cornerback Mike Jackson had a breakout NFL season with the Seattle Seahawks in 2022.

In response, the Seahawks signed the former Spain Park High School standout to a one-year, $940,000 contract. Then Seattle used the fifth choice in the 2023 NFL Draft on cornerback Devon Witherspoon.

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“It’s human nature,” said Clint Hurtt, the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator. “Obviously, when somebody of that stature comes into the room and things like that, it naturally kind of stirs the pot a little bit. But I think it’s good.”

Jackson entered the NFL from Miami (Fla.) as a fifth-round draft choice of the Dallas Cowboys in 2019. In his first three seasons, Jackson played 29 defensive snaps in four NFL regular-season games.

For Seattle last season, Jackson started every game and played 1,082 defensive snaps. He made 75 tackles, intercepted one pass and broke up 11 more. Opposing quarterbacks had a 75.1 passing-efficiency rating when throwing against Jackson. Among the NFL players who were targeted at least 85 times in 2022, Jackson yielded the eighth-lowest completion percentage and the sixth-lowest yards-per-pass average in 2022.

In Seattle’s 27-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sept. 18, Jackson scored his first NFL touchdown when he picked up a blocked field-goal attempt and ran 86 yards.

The Seahawks had uncertainty in their secondary entering last season, but Jackson and Tariq Woolen stepped up to start every game as the cornerbacks in the 2022 campaign. A fifth-round draft choice from Texas-San Antonio, Woolen tied for the NFL lead with six interceptions and received a Pro Bowl invitation.

After hitting the jackpot with Woolen, Seattle made a bigger bet in this year’s draft at cornerback by making Witherspoon the second defensive player picked in 2023.

Witherspoon earned consensus All-American recognition at Illinois in 2022. After Woolen’s all-star season, Jackson would appear the player in Witherspoon’s path to the starting lineup.

But Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Jackson has shown in Seattle’s offseason program that he’s “ready to play.”

“Michael Jackson has had the best camp of anybody,” Carroll said. “He had a great camp. He stepped up to the challenge of it. Had just a really productive, almost a dominant camp for us. That was great to see that. We need it. …

“Mike challenged whenever he could, all of the techniques, all of the stuff we asked him to do. Playing on both sides, he played some inside stuff, too. But he just — his confidence is really at an all-time high for him.”

Jackson has been battling to play since entering the NFL.

The Cowboys waived Jackson at the end of his first NFL training camp, then brought him back for the practice squad.

Signed off Dallas’ practice squad by Detroit on Oct. 30, 2019, Jackson made his NFL debut with the Lions on Nov. 24, 2019. But that was his only appearance for Detroit, which traded Jackson to the New England Patriots on Aug. 9, 2020.

New England handled Jackson the same way the Cowboys had, but he came off the practice squad to play in the Patriots’ final game of the 2020 season.

In 2021, New England waived Jackson again at the end of the preseason. But this time, he was on the Seahawks’ practice squad two days later, and Jackson played in the final two games of the season for Seattle.

Two days after the 2021 season ended, the Seahawks re-signed Jackson for the 2022 campaign.

“Mike has a natural competitive nature to him,” Hurtt said. “For a lot of people, human nature, they kind of relax and go into cruise control. Mike Jackson’s never been like that in the time that we’ve had him here. He’s always had a consistent work ethic to him and always been humble, so to see the steps that he made last year, where he was a pleasant surprise to everybody, his work ethic kind of always spoke to that. He’s a big, strong kid out there on the corner, and his game has continued to get better. I love seeing the confidence from him that we’re seeing now, which is really cool.”

The Seahawks’ offseason program wraps up on Wednesday. The players will be on their summer break until returning for training camp late next month. Seattle kicks off its three-game preseason schedule on Aug. 10, when the Minnesota Vikings visit.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.