The Carolina Panthers went a bit off the wall on Thursday.
As announced this afternoon, the team has acquired cornerback Michael Jackson in a trade with the Seattle Seahawks. The somewhat surprising swap will send rookie linebacker and 2024 seventh-round pick Michael Barrett out west.
A Second-team All-ACC member out of the University of Miami (Fla.), Jackson cracked into the NFL as a fifth-round selection of the Dallas Cowboys in 2019. He’d never log a regular-season snap for the Cowboys, however, as he was signed off their practice squad by the Detroit Lions a few months into his rookie campaign.
The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder appeared in just one game for Detroit in 2019 and one for the New England Patriots in 2020. Jackson moved on to Seattle in 2021, where he’d eventually start in 21 of his 36 contests through the 2023 campaign.
Heading over in exchange for Jackson is Barrett, whom the Panthers grabbed with this year’s 240th overall pick.