There was a time when Gabe Jackson was considered one of the best guards in the NFL. Though he has never been named to the Pro Bowl, he has several times been a Pro Bowl alternate and that’s while playing left guard his first two seasons and shifting to right guard after that.
I mention that because his past couple of seasons seemed to cause a lot of people to forget just how good Jackson can be. He simply hasn’t been healthy the past couple seasons to prove it.
Last season he played the entire season with a dislocated kneecap. The season before he played through a dislocated elbow.
All this happening while he was among the highest-paid players on the team, led to reports the team was shopping him in trades this past offseason. They may have been, but they are pretty happy now that they didn’t.
“This man, if he’s not the best right guard in football, show me the math. I wouldn’t trade Gabe for nothing,” Jon Gruden said Wednesday, causing more than a few eyebrows to raise with that last bit.
He certainly wouldn’t trade him now. Not with the way Jackson is playing this season and certainly not with the revolving door the Raiders have had at the right tackle spot.
Jackson has had four different tackles beside him this season and at times has had as many as three different tackles in the same game. With that rotation, it’s more valuable than ever to have a steady veteran presence like Jackson there.
“I help where I can,” Jackson said of how much the many different right tackles have leaned on him this season.
“Even throughout practice, if I know for sure I’m going to have a different tackle than I’ve been working with, we try to communicate things together so he’ll know what it means come game day, so there’s nothing that’s out the picture or that one of us can’t adjust to.”
Trent Brown is the team’s starting right tackle, but he was lost after three snaps in the season opener and has played just one game since. First, it was a calf injury that had him out, now he’s on the reserve/COVID-19 list for the second time. Sam Young is the team’s swing tackle, but he has had trouble finishing games and was replaced first by guard Denzelle Good and then by third-string tackle Brandon Parker.
Next to Jackson is perennial Pro Bowler, Rodney Hudson and the two of them have been a dominating duo, opening up lanes in the run game this season, while also keeping defenders out of the backfield and keeping Jon Gruden’s blood pressure down.
“The inside guys, are playing great,” said Gruden. “Obviously we hope one day to have Trent and Kolton back on the field, but for the time being, that’s the strength of this offense. The quarterback and the interior linemen. Boy they make the guys next to them play better. They really set the standard here.”
For Jackson in particular it’s vindication, after struggling through his injuries the past couple of seasons. Partly he’s reminding everyone of the talent he has, but also he is once again the steady performer, helping to lift the play of whoever happens to line up to his right each week.
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