Jackson leaving destruction in his wake
It’s still one of the most spellbinding and terrifying moments I’ve ever spent during a Raiders training camp practice.
It was three years ago and Gabe Jackson was coming right at me during an 11on-11 session as I stood along the sideline. An upright refrigerator on wheels, only with nimbleness afoot, about to terminate my existence on this earth.
I moved, Jackson missed me — he may not have been as close as it seemed — and for a split second I knew what it felt like to be a defensive back and have this 6-foot-3, 335-pound weapon of mass destruction coming at me at a clip that seemed impossible for someone that size.
It is that Gabe Jackson, the one the Raiders signed to a fiveyear contract extension worth nearly $56 million in 2017, who has returned to his old self in 2020. The Raiders open the second half of the season Sunday at Allegiant Stadium against the Denver Broncos.
“This man, if he’s not the best right guard in football, then show me who is,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said.
For the last two years, Jackson has had the usual assortment of injuries but some bad ones as well — a dislocated elbow in 2018, and an MCL strain in training camp last year that Gruden now says was a dislocated kneecap. It cost Jackson five games and he wasn’t the same player when he returned.
Jackson, an agreeable if not particularly enthusiastic interview subject, wasn’t interested in delving deeply into his level of play but did concede, “just being healthy feels good.”
Quarterback Derek Carr, from the same draft class in 2014 that
brought Jackson from Mississippi State in 2014, sits next to him on every charter flight.
“The last couple of years, he’s played hobbled,” Carr said. “He’s played with one arm, he’s played with one leg. He’s one of the toughest, grittiest players I’ve ever been around. This year he’s healthy. He’s flying around, smacking dudes like we all knew he could. It’s really fun to watch.”
There was speculation during the offseason that perhaps Jackson wouldn’t make it to 2020. He’d been hurt each of the first two years of his contract extension and could have been released with no penalty against the salary cap. Richie Incognito emerged as the left guard and Denzelle Good, who had proved he was formidable, not to mention cheaper, was available on the right. The NFL can be brutal and unforgiving and Jackson’s $9.3 million salary and $9.6 million cap number were an easy target.
To this day I’m not sure how seriously the Raiders considered letting him go. One thing about Gruden, though, is his level of respect for those who play through injury. When Gruden arrived, Kelechi Osemele, the highly-paid Pro Bowl guard on the left side, was traded to the Jets in part because there were instances where the Raiders thought he might play but didn’t. It’s not fair, but it happens all the time throughout the league.
Of all the moves the Raiders made in the offseason, one of the best decisions they made was keeping Jackson.
Jackson and center Rodney Hudson got the Raiders off on the right foot in a 31-26 win over the Chargers by pulling to the right and leading Devontae Booker to a 23yard scoring run in which he was untouched. It was the kind of play he could have never made last year, when his quickness and agility were compromised.
“It’s fun and it’s not fun, because you’re playing the battle of you being fat and they being faster than you,” Jackson said. “It was fun to get out there and show a little speed on the sideline and ultimately get a touchdown.”
In a season of shuffling by offensive line coach Tom Cable, no one has dealt with more change than Jackson, who has had Brown, Good, Sam Young and Brandon Parker lining up alongside him at various times.
Carr has been to the Pro Bowl, and has seen linemen such as Hudson, Trent Brown, Osemele and Donald Penn similarly honored since 2016.
“Gabe is the one guy I look at where it’s like, ‘How does he not get in?,’” Carr said.
Through midseason in 2020, the Raiders are revolving around Carr, who is pulling the strings of a balanced offense leading the way to a 5-3 record. But they’re powered by Jackson, along with Hudson and Good.
“That’s the strength of this offense, the quarterback and the interior linemen,” Gruden said. “They make the guys next to them play better. They really set the standard here.”