Josina Anderson reports that the Raiders have turned their attention to locking up G Gabe Jackson to a long-term contract now that they’ve taken care of QB Derek Carr.
However, Anderson says that “it is very, very early” in regards to contract talks between the Raiders and Jackson. Anderson adds that some benchmarks for this negotiation figure to be a deal exceeding Joel Bitonio‘s $10 million annual salary and between the $11.7 million the Raiders are paying Kelechi Osemele and the $12 million the Browns handed out to Kevin Zeitler this offseason.
According to Anderson’s source, a “deal will likely get done.”
Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie previously confirmed that Jackson is a priority for them, but said there’s still no timetable for a deal.
“There’s no timetable,” McKenzie said. “But, I alluded to earlier in the offseason that Gabe is one of the guys I want to get locked up.”
Scot Bair of CSN Bay Area mentions that the Raiders currently have around $18 million of salary cap space to work with after signing Carr, but will need a portion of this to sign their top three draft picks.
The Raiders also need some money to retain OLB Khalil Mack down the road, so McKenzie will have to do his best to balance all of this.
Jackson, 25, is a former third-round pick of the Raiders back in 2014. He’s currently in the final year of his four-year, $2.952 million contract and stands to make a base salary of $705,000 for the 2017 season before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2018.
Last year, Jackson appeared in all 16 games for the Raiders and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 22 guard out of 72 qualifying players.
We’ll have more regarding a new contract for Jackson as the news is available.
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