Seahawks trade 5th round pick for Raiders guard Gabe Jackson

For whatever reason, the Las Vegas Raiders are almost completely disassembling their offensive line, and that’s been to the benefit of the NFC West.

Hours after the Arizona Cardinals traded for center Rodney Hudson, the Seattle Seahawks got in on the act and acquired veteran guard Gabe Jackson for a 2021 fifth-round draft pick.

It’s not ideal to have such little draft capital — Seattle is down to three picks now — but it is hopefully worth relinquishing a Day 3 pick for a starting offensive lineman.

Jackson can play guard on either side but he’s spent most of his career at right guard. He has never won any major NFL accolades but seven seasons as part of the revolving door that is the Raiders franchise is nothing to sniff at. Seattle has a hole at left guard with Mike Iupati’s retirement and Jordan Simmons not getting tendered. Phil Haynes has barely played and Jamarco Jones has spent too much time toggling between ineffective and injured, so one would assume Jackson would be projected to move to left guard.

The other possibility is that they have Jackson stay at right guard and move Damien Lewis either to left guard or really go in on the idea of having him play center. I wouldn’t really back that idea but it’s just something to ponder.

One more important thing to note about Jackson is that he’s only missed 12 games since entering the league in 2014. We know all too well about injury problems along the Seahawks OL so this is good news.

Seahawk Maven’s Corbin Smith has some key details on Jackson that he wrote up earlier this month:

Last season, while Jackson received his lowest pass blocking grade of his career (69.9) and tied a career-high with 26 total pressures allowed, he wasn’t charged with a single sack and only yielded two quarterback hits against Derek Carr. It was the fifth season in his career where he surrendered one or fewer sacks and two or fewer quarterback hits, further illustrating his reliability as a protector.

If there are question marks regarding Jackson’s fit in Seattle, it would be in regard to his run blocking and potential scheme fit issues.

In seven NFL seasons, Jackson has received a 62.0 grade or lower from Pro Football Focus in the run blocking department four times. This includes each of the past two seasons when he received 58.5 and 53.6 grades - the two lowest grades of his career - which ranked 47th and 46th among qualified guards in 2020 and 2019 respectively.

In the three years since line coach Tom Cable arrived, Jackson has struggled in an outside zone-heavy scheme due to his limited mobility and lateral quickness along with nagging injuries. At 335 pounds, he has performed better in a power blocking scheme where he can use his strength and physicality to bully defenders off the snap.

So there you have it! The Seahawks have begun investing in the offensive line to mark the first official day of the 2021 league year.