Gabe Jackson - Pro Football Rumors

Raiders To Keep Gabe Jackson

April 25th, 2020 at 4:37pm CST by Zachary Links

The Raiders won’t trade Gabe Jackson. At least, that’s the plan, according to GM Mike Mayock.

“The future of Gabe Jackson? He’s our starting right guard,” Mayock said (Twitter link via Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Journal Review).

The Raiders used an early fourth-round pick on Clemson guard John Simpson, but Mayock indicates that he’ll be eased into the pro game behind Jackson on the depth chart. At 6’4″ and 321 pounds, Simpson was regarded as one of the strongest interior offensive linemen in this draft. Still, his technique needs lots of work, and he’s likely too green to be a first-stringer off the bat.

Jackson, meanwhile, has started in all but one of his games for the Raiders across six seasons. The former third-rounder has three years left on his deal with base salaries of ~$9.3MM in each season. The Raiders, reportedly, weren’t asking for much in trade talks, but they didn’t find a deal they liked. Mayock claims that he’ll join them for the inaugural season in Las Vegas, but it’s a situation worth monitoring as Jackson’s deal has no remaining guaranteed money.

Injuries have hampered Jackson lately, costing him eight games over the past two years. In 2019, Pro Football Focus graded Jackson as just the league’s 40th-best guard.

Raiders’ Asking Price For Gabe Jackson Is “Not High”

April 23rd, 2020 at 6:24pm CST by Dallas Robinson

Raiders guard Gabe Jackson has been mentioned in trade rumors since at least March, and Oakland continues to shop him in the lead up to the draft. The Raiders’ asking price for Jackson is “not high,” tweets Michael Silver of NFL.com.

Jackson, 28, has three years left on his contract with base salaries of roughly $9.3MM in each season. Oakland wouldn’t incur any dead money by releasing him, but the club is clearly aiming to recoup some sort of draft capital instead of simply cutting Jackson.

A second-round pick in the 2014 draft, Jackson has been a full-time starter since joining the Raiders. Injuries have caught up to him in recent years, however, and he’s missed eight games over the past two seasons. Last season, Pro Football Focus graded Jackson as just the league’s 40th-best guard.

It’s unclear just how little the Raiders are willing to accept in exchange for Jackson, but given his injury history and upcoming salaries, it shouldn’t be surprising if they’re only able to get a Day 3 pick, if anything.

Raiders’ Gabe Jackson Drawing Trade Interest

March 10th, 2020 at 11:32am CST by Zachary Links

The Raiders have discussed potential trades involving guard Gabe Jackson, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). As it stands, he’s due a non-guaranteed salary of $9.6MM in 2020. Other teams are intrigued by the possibility of adding the veteran, though they may seek to work out a revised deal with him.

The Raiders selected Jackson in the third round of the 2014 draft and quickly thrust him into the starting lineup. He’s been a first-string player throughout his career, though injuries have cost him some time, including a 2019 knee malady that limited him to just eleven contests.

Jackson has been viewed as a release candidate this season due to his health and salary, so it’s not a shock to hear that he has been discussed in trade talks. Jackson might not fetch a huge haul for Jon Gruden & Co., but he could return some extra draft ammo for April.

Last year, the Raiders turned to Richie Incognito after Jackson’s injury and Denzelle Good was promoted to the starting lineup to fill the remaining guard gap. Good recently re-upped with the Raiders on a one-year, $2.3MM deal with $1.7MM guaranteed.

Raiders To Explore Guard Trade Market

August 11th, 2019 at 7:52pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Raiders will be without their longest-tenured offensive lineman for around two months. They appear set to look at outside options in the interim.

Gabe Jackson‘s knee injury will mean Oakland goes into this season without either of the guard starters it deployed primarily for the past three seasons, with the team having already traded Kelechi Osemele to New York in March. Already set to be without Richie Incognito for two weeks because of a suspension, the Raiders are expected to explore the guard trade market, Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tweets.

Incognito arrived shortly after the draft, with Jon Gruden advocating for another guard to replace Osemele instead of the team’s in-house options. At right guard presently, depth signing Jordan Devey will receive the first shot at replacing Jackson, Gruden said (via Gehlken, on Twitter). Devey has started just four games over the past three seasons, each coming as a member of the Chiefs.

Fourth-year UDFA Denver Kirkland is also in that mix; Denzelle Good remains on the team’s active/PUP list. Jackson hurt his knee during practice this week. The Raiders have more than $18MM in cap space, but with Jackson and Incognito potentially set to debut together by October, it would be interesting to see them give up too much to acquire a stopgap guard.

Still attached to the $10MM-AAV deal he signed in 2017, Jackson has started 72 games for the Raiders since arriving as a 2014 third-round pick. He finished last season on IR and would be a candidate for an IR-return player to start this season, but that would only be the case if the Raiders believed his timetable would involve a return closer to November rather than October.

Raiders To Place G Gabe Jackson On IR

December 18th, 2018 at 4:18pm CST by Sam Robinson

Gabe Jackson‘s fifth NFL season will come to a close early. The Raiders will place the veteran guard on IR, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.

Battling an elbow injury, Jackson missed last week’s Raiders game and will now miss their final two. Prior to last week, Jackson had only missed four games in five seasons.

The former second-round pick-turned-interior-line anchor joins tackle Donald Penn on IR. Both players comprised what was long the Raiders’ best unit, with Jackson (signed to a five-year, $55MM contract) being a key component of Oakland’s front, despite not receiving the Pro Bowl accolades Penn, Rodney Hudson and Kelechi Osemele have.

Reggie McKenzie‘s method of structuring contracts leaves the Raiders an out if the now-Jon Gruden-led organization would like to move on from another of the since-fired GM’s deals. However, the 27-year-old blocker would not seem like a release candidate — even for a franchise that has gutted most of the previous regime’s work. Four years remain on Jackson’s deal.

AFC West Notes: Chiefs, Broncos, Raiders

July 11th, 2017 at 6:04pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Chiefs did in fact interview a minority candidate for their general manager position — in compliance with the Rooney Rule — but that individual does not wish to be identified, tweets Jason Cole of Bleacher Report. As such, the Fritz Pollard Alliance approved of Kansas City’s GM search. “The Chiefs left it up to the individual candidates and their agents whether they wanted their names out there or not,” chairman John Wooten told Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. “But I can assure you that they complied. We are comfortable [with their interview process].”

Aside from Brett Veach, only three other contenders’ interviews were public knowledge: Seahawks co-director of player personnel Scott Fitterer, Titans director of player personnel Ryan Cowden, and Chiefs co-director of player personnel Mike Borgonzi. All personnel interview requests must be made to the league office, meaning the unnamed candidate may work in the media, according to to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who speculates ESPN commentator Louis Riddick — who was linked to the Kansas City vacancy — may have been the interviewee.

Here’s more from the AFC West:

Nearing age-30 and coming off a down season (by his standards), Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas finally feels healthy after a hip injury nagged him in 2016, and he feels he can continue playing at a high level even as he enters the twilight of his career. “I got longer than 30 [years],” Thomas told Aric DiLalla of DenverBroncos.com. “I think I’ve got a couple good years [left]. Like I’ve been saying before, this is the best I’ve felt my whole career. I haven’t had the problems I usually have with my hip, because that was one of the things that held me back.” Playing without Peyton Manning for the first time since 2011, Thomas posted 90 receptions for 1,083 yards and five touchdowns a season ago.
While the full details and structure of Gabe Jackson‘s five-year, $56MM extension with the Raiders aren’t yet know, Joel Corry of CBSSports.com (Twitter links) has passed along a few particulars of the deal. Oakland, well-known fans of the pay-as-you-go contract structure, employed that technique with Jackson, per Corry, meaning the club did not use a signing bonus. Such a composition should allow the Raiders to easily exit the pact in future years. Jackson’s 2017 cap charge has now increased from roughly $1.945MM to ~$10.648MM, meaning Oakland utilized about $8.7MM of its available cap space.
In case you missed it, PFR’s Sam Robinson reviewed the Broncos‘ offseason earlier this week, recapping and analyzing the major signings, departures, trades, and other notable offseason events for Denver.

QB Notes: Carr, Stafford, Bortles, FAs

July 1st, 2017 at 9:45am CST by Ben Levine

During the press conference to announce his new contract, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr had said that he wanted to leave some money for the organization to re-sign his teammates.

“The main thing that I could just remember was all along the way, I was like, ‘How do we keep my teammates?’” Carr said (via Raiders.com). “That’s, I don’t know if it’s weird how it sounds, but that was just what I kept telling him. I was like, ‘OK. that’s cool. Yeah, that’s awesome, wow, cool. Is this good for Gabe [Jackson]? Is this good for Khalil [Mack]? Is this good for Amari [Cooper]?’ [Reggie] can tell you himself, these are things that I said to him numerous amounts of times. I didn’t want to hurt our team; that’s the last thing I would ever want to do. So, hopefully we didn’t That’s the last thing that I intended to do and that’s kind of why I was so involved.”

Well, Carr’s brother, former NFL quarterback David Carr, said the Raiders star left money on the table so the team could specifically re-sign offensive guard Gabe Jackson (via Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com). While Carr still became the first player in NFL history to make more than $25MM a season, his contract apparently left enough room for the organization to re-sign Jackson to a five-year, $56MM extension.

Let’s check out some more notes from around the NFL pertaining to the league’s quarterbacks…

With all the talk surrounding free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Roy Cummings of FloridaFootballInsiders.com notes that there are a number of available signal-callers who could justify having a roster spot in the NFL. Besides the former 49ers quarterback, Cummings lists Vince Young, Robert Griffin, Christian Ponder, Johnny Manziel, and Jay Cutler as those who are still awaiting phone calls.
Matthew Stafford‘s 2018 franchise tag value will be around $26.4MM, according to Albert Breer of the MMQB.com. The reporter notes that this will give the veteran some leverage during contract negotiations with the Lions, as the “the expected slotted number” was around $22MM. Next season, Stafford will be earning a $16.5MM base salary in the final year of his contract.
The Jaguars acquisition of rookie running back Leonard Fournette, rookie lineman Cam Robinson, and veteran offensive tackle Branden Albert should give the organization some clarity on quarterback Blake Bortles, writes Breer. The 25-year-old, who seemingly took a step back last season following a breakout 2015 campaign, had his fifth-year option for 2018 picked up earlier this offseason.

Raiders, Gabe Jackson Agree To Extension

June 29th, 2017 at 5:47pm CST by Connor J. Byrne

The Raiders and right guard Gabe Jackson have agreed to a five-year, $56MM extension, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). The deal includes $26MM in guarantees, tweets ESPN’s Josina Anderson, and will keep Jackson with the Raiders through 2022.

Oakland had been prioritizing a Jackson extension since early in the offseason, so it’s no surprise that the two sides have agreed to a contract. Jackson’s now the second core member of the Raiders to accept a long-term deal this month, following quarterback Derek Carr, who landed a five-year, $125MM accord last week.

With the 25-year-old Jackson and Kelechi Osemele under wraps, the Raiders now have two of the NFL’s highest-paid guards. Osemele actually edges out Jackson in total value, having inked a five-year, $58.5MM contract as a free agent in 2016, but his deal includes less in guarantees ($25.4MM). Among guards, Jackson only ranks behind the Bengals’ Kevin Zeitler (five years, $60MM) and Osemele in value, and he’s second to Zeitler’s $31.5MM in guarantees.

Since entering the league as a third-round pick in 2014, Jackson has started in 44 of 45 regular-season appearances. The former Mississippi State standout has back-to-back 16-game seasons under his belt, and he’s coming off a year in which he ranked as Pro Football Focus’ 22nd-best guard (72 qualifiers). Led by their two guards, left tackle Donald Penn and center Rodney Hudson, the Raiders had the fourth-best offensive line in the league last year, according to PFF. All four of those players, not to mention primary right tackle Austin Howard, are returning this season, meaning the Raiders should once again have an elite quintet of blockers to make life easier for Carr and their skill players.

Raiders, Gabe Jackson Begin Talks

June 29th, 2017 at 11:50am CST by Zachary Links

Contracts talks between the Raiders and guard Gabe Jackson are underway, Josina Anderson of ESPN.com (Twitter links) hears. However, her source cautions that it is “very, very early” in the process. Ultimately, Anderson is told that the deal is almost certain to get done (Twitter link).

It has been expected for months now that the Raiders and Jackson would commence contract negotiations this summer. Naturally, a new deal for Derek Carr was No. 1 on the team’s to-do list, but Jackson is next up now that the quarterback has been inked to a five-year, $125MM deal. Extensions for Jackson and linebacker Khalil Mack now stand as the team’s biggest priorities. The Raiders should have the flexibility to get those deals done plus a fresh contract for wide receiver Amari Cooper thanks to the team-friendly structure of Carr’s pact.

The Raiders are eager to lock up Jackson for the foreseeable future, but an extension won’t come cheap. Anderson hears that Jackson’s camp is looking to top Joel Bitonio‘s $10MM annual average salary and may look to approach the AAV of Kelechi Osemele ($11.7MM) and Kevin Zeitler ($12MM).

Jackson, 26 in July, has been a starter since entering the league as a third-round pick in 2014. Last season, Jackson graded as the league’s No. 20 offensive guard among 72 qualifiers, per Pro Football Focus.

AFC West Rumors: LT, Raiders, San Antonio

March 30th, 2017 at 9:10am CST by Zachary Links

LaDainian Tomlinson has joined the Chargers as a “Special Assistant to the owner of the team,” according to a press release. It sounds like Tomlinson will not have a part in front office decisions as his job will focus more on fan relations. His presence could help smooth over tensions with San Diegans who are feeling scorned by the team’s relocation to Los Angeles.

“L.T. is one of the most beloved and iconic Chargers of all time,” said Chairman Dean Spanos in the statement. “His active involvement in our fight for Los Angeles is vital, and he represents the very best of what it means to be a Charger on the field and in the community.”

Here’s more from the AFC West:

It sounds like we won’t see major progress in the Raiders‘ extension talks with Derek Carr until May or later. “He knows what we’re trying to do in free agency, and he’s never saying, ‘I need to know now. It’s not like that,” GM Reggie McKenzie said, according to Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com. “More likely, the serious talks will happen after the draft. The communication has been ongoing, just talking about the philosophy of a contract and the thought process around it. Hopefully when the serious talks start going, then it’s going to be easier.” McKenzie also indicated that an extension could be on the way for right guard Gabe Jackson. The Raiders will also discuss a new deal with Khalil Mack, but they have more time on that front thanks to his option for the 2018 season.
Multiple cities have reached out to the Raiders expressing interest in being their temporary home, including San Antonio, Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News tweets. It’s possible that we could see the Raiders make a pit stop on the way from Oakland to Las Vegas.
The Broncos will add a third quarterback, but that player is likely to be a young veteran or a rookie.
The Chiefs hosted linebacker Rey Maualuga on a visit this week.