Panthers CB Mike Jackson wandered the NFL for 5 years; he’s found a home opposite Jaycee Horn

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mike Jackson had gone through enough training camps and endured enough cut-day disappointments the week of his wife’s birthday that he had a bad feeling about where things were headed.

This was last summer in Seattle, where the Seahawks had two young All-Pro cornerbacks in Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen and a new coach in Mike Macdonald. Meanwhile, Jackson had a groin strain that was costing him practice reps. It all had him thinking about life after football.

He bought a piece of land in his hometown of Pinson, Ala., outside of Birmingham, as an investment property in case this was it. A couple weeks later, Seattle traded Jackson to Carolina — which had its own first-year coach, who spent 13 years with the Seahawks — and everything changed.

“I’m a realist, like, ‘All right, Mike, you was drafted, cut, practice squad. This might be the end of the road.’ I had friends who it is the end of the road for them. So it was like, this is kind of my emergency plan,” Jackson recalled.

“But when I got traded here, it was like a new sense of life. Dave Canales gave me a chance. And for that, I’m forever grateful because he didn’t have to.”

The Seahawks sent Jackson to Carolina in exchange for rookie linebacker Michael Barrett, a seventh-round pick…