Jackson’s 5-year deal fortifies line
Fans like to call the Raiders’ offensive linemen “Carr insurance.” On Thursday the team made a big payment.
A week after signing quarterback Derek Carr to a five-year extension, Oakland locked up guard Gabe Jackson with a five-year extension worth $56 million, according to league sources.
Jackson was the team’s third-round pick in the 2014 draft, which turned the franchise around, with general manager Reggie McKenzie taking defensive end Khalil Mack in the first round and Carr in the second. Mack, the NFL Defensive Player of the Year last season, is in line for a big payday next offseason.
Sources said nearly half of the money in Jack-
son’s deal is guaranteed. The NFL Network was the first to report that the two sides had agreed to terms.
Jackson, 25, started 28 games at left guard his first two seasons out of Mississippi State before moving to the right side last year after the Raiders signed free agent Kelechi Osemele to a five-year, $58.5 million contract. Osemele, one of two guards in the league now making more money than Jackson, made the Pro Bowl after Oakland’s 12-4 season.
The Raiders’ offensive line — which also had Pro Bowlers in center Rodney Hudson and left tackle Donald Penn — allowed a league-low 18 sacks last season.
The 6-foot-4, 340-pound Jackson, like Osemele, didn't give up any sacks last season and was named a Pro Bowl alternate. In fact, he allowed only 27 quarterback pressures in 735 pass-blocking snaps.
When you include Hudson’s $44.6 million deal two years ago, the Raiders have allocated $159 million on the interior of the offensive line — surely an NFL record. But McKenzie still has some left next offseason for offensive linemen’s worst nightmare, Mack.
Mack, who had 11 sacks last season with very little interior help, will likely surpass Broncos pass rusher Von Miller’s six-year, $114.5 million deal signed in 2016, but he will have to wait until next summer. Because he was a first-round pick, unlike Carr and Jackson, the Raiders were able to pick up his fifth-year option, meaning he will get $3 million this season and his contract doesn’t expire until after the 2018 season,
The Raiders open training camp in Napa on July 28.