Seahawks Extend G Gabe Jackson

The Seahawks will make sure their recently acquired guard is locked up long-term. They agreed to a three-year extension with Gabe Jackson on Tuesday.

Jackson agreed to a three-year, $22.58MM extension with his new team, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Upon being traded, Jackson was still attached to the five-year, $56MM extension he signed with the Raiders in 2017. The veteran guard and the Seahawks have adjusted the terms of his deal.

Guaranteed money will come Jackson’s way. No guarantees remained on Jackson’s Raiders-constructed contract, but Rapoport adds that the seven-year starter will receive a $9MM signing bonus and just more than $7MM in additional guarantees. This move figures to reduce Jackson’s 2021 cap hit ($9.6MM), freeing up some cap room for his new team. Jackson will see $16MM over the next two years, per Jeremy Fowler and Brady Henderson of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The veteran traded a higher average salary for guarantees.

Seattle acquired Jackson for a fifth-round pick, agreeing to send the Day 3 draft choice to Las Vegas for a player on the verge of being cut. Rather than vie with other prospective suitors on the free agent market, the Seahawks secured Jackson’s rights via the trade. The move came several weeks after Russell Wilson went public about his desire to see his team upgrade on the offensive line.

A 2014 third-round pick, Jackson has been a starter throughout his career. He helped the likes of Latavius Murray and Josh Jacobs to 1,000-yard rushing seasons and entered March as the Raiders’ longest-tenured O-lineman. While the 29-year-old blocker has not made a Pro Bowl in his career, he qualifies as a major O-line add for a team that authorized a host of lower-level deals last year.

The Seahawks now have Jackson and emerging guard Damien Lewis signed long-term. Questions remain at tackle, where starters Duane Brown and Brandon Shell are in contract years, but the Seahawks have added Jackson and re-signed starting center Ethan Pocic. It remains to be seen if these transactions moved the needle for Wilson, but the team is in better position up front than it was in 2020.